Candidate Barack Obama ran a brilliant campaign, convincing moderates and even some conservatives that he was no radical while keeping the netroot base fully engaged. But seven months after taking office, the list of disappointed voters (at least those willing to admit they were had) is growing.

Fiscal conservatives who bought the spiel that he’d go line by line through the budget have seen the most fiscally irresponsible president ever. After a $787B pork-filled stimulus, a supplemental spending measure with 9,000 earmarks, a $3.5 trillion budget, and a trillion dollar health care plan, Obama has managed to exceed the worst predictions of his critics. And now at least some of his advisors are letting on that his promise not to hike taxes on 95% of taxpayers is going to be cast aside. After all, the deficit is now so huge we must plug the gap, right? (Robert Gibbs said Obama would never raise taxes on the middle class – well, except for those cigarette and energy taxes.)

Then there are the good government types who fancied a new era of transparency and lobbyist-free government. Well, not quite. We have had the long list of tax cheats and the lobbyists who needed ethics waivers to squeeze through the revolving door. Again and again — whether on the stimulus plan or on cap and trade — gargantuan legislation has been rushed through without public scrutiny. Well, if the public figured out what was on some of those thousands of pages, they might have objected.

There were gay voters who felt certain this contemporary president understood their concerns. Unlike all the other liberal pols he would finally deliver on gay marriage, they hoped ( after all he came out against Proposition 8 in California) and repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Well, as James Kirchick explains, “Whatever he ‘really’ thinks, Obama’s stance on gay marriage is virtually indistinguishable from that of John McCain.” And re-examination of “don’t ask, don’t tell” remains far down on the priority list. (As Reason magazine’s Shikha Dalmia put it, “President Obama is pleading for time to push this issue until after, presumably, he has averted global warming, revived the economy, and implemented universal health coverage.”)

That’s nothing compared to the betrayal of American Jews and other pro-Israel voters. During the campaign he came on bended knee to AIPAC, made little if any mention of Israeli settlements, and sneered at those who might question his Zionist bona fides. After receiving the money and votes of gullible Jewish voters, as president he has now declared his intention to put “daylight” between the U.S. and Israel and has embarked on an openly hostile approach to the Jewish state. And if that wasn’t enough, he chooses to honor, with America’s highest civilian award, Mary Robinson, who presided over the anti-Israel hate-fest at Durban in 2001 when serving as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Then there are the poor benighted pro-life voters who listened to the likes of Doug Kmiec and believed Obama would be someone more pro-life than his prior political record had demonstrated. But sure enough, he repealed the restriction on funding international groups which provide abortion services, nominated a Supreme Court judge who his advisors assured pro-choice groups would be solidly in their corner, and has done nothing to alter the Democrats’ aversion to any restrictions on abortion. (Indeed, Democrats will almost surely insist that abortion services be provided under Obama’s universal health care proposal.)

Perhaps the pro-life voters should have compared notes with the libertarians who were convinced that Obama was somehow going to limit the reach of government. But instead, the nanny state reigns supreme, stronger than ever. Obama is regulating tobacco, cheering on a massive energy tax and regulatory scheme, and planning a massive new consumer protection agency. Not very free market friendly, is he?

When you tally the list it’s an impressive record. He’s managed to offend or disappoint a diverse array of voters — everyone from Jews, to libertarians, to green eyeshade conservatives. Then you add in seniors who are more wary of his health care plan than younger voters and pro-defense voters who were lulled into his promise to expand the military (and now find that the Department of Defense is on a strict diet while the rest of the federal government is gorging).

So it’s not hard to see why the winning coalition of voters who put Obama in the White House is slowly crumbling. Essentially, anyone who expected something other than an ultra-liberal intent on vastly expanding the power of the federal government and retreating from America’s position of leadership in the world was taken for a ride.

Whether Obama can recapture the support of these voters and get them to turn out to the same degree that they did in 2008 remains to be seen. But you can’t win elections with only the left sliver of the electorate. And it’s going to be hard to fool all the rest of the voters a second time.

243 Comments, 243 Threads

1.
Pragmatist

Why would Obambi’s victims not feel let down this is just a partial list of all the information the TRANSPARENT ????? Obamanation is actively HIDING. So what IS he trying to stop getting out. Consider this Obambi had a Passport ( used to go to Pakistan in 1981 remember) and presumably a Drivers Licence and has been admitted to the Bar and also to various Colleges and Ivey League Universities where he MUST have had to provide a Birth Certificate. But unfortunately for the Obamanation all these events PRE DATE the photoshopped COLB he is trying to pass off as his BC so what Certificate did he use as it CANNOT have been this COLB and is that the real reason behind the hiding of all these personal details?

As it stands, Obama is the only president in history whose birthplace is unknown to the public a fact that would be stated on the actual birth certificate. Interestingly, his family has mentioned two different hospitals in Hawaii as the place of birth.
Obamas refusal to release his birth certificate does mean that Obama remains one of Americas most mysterious and opaque presidents ever.
Obama, for example, has not released many other documents regarding his public and private life.
Many of these documents were sought by reporters, who easily acquiesced when Obama said he would not release them though most presidential candidates release them as a perfunctory matter.
Among the key documents that Obama continues to shield from the public:
Obama released just one brief document detailing his personal health. McCain, on the other hand, released what he said was his complete medical file, totaling more than 1,500 pages.
Obama refused to offer his official papers as a state legislator in Illinois. Nor did he produce correspondence, such as his schedules of appointments or letters from lobbyists, from his days in the Illinois state Senate.
Obama did not release his client list as an attorney or his billing records. He maintained that he performed only a few hours of legal work for a nonprofit organization with ties to Tony Rezko, the Chicago businessman convicted of fraud in June 2008 but did not release billing records that would prove this assertion.
Obama ignored requests for his records from Occidental College, where he studied for two years before transferring to Columbia University.
Obamas campaign refused to give Columbia, where he earned an undergraduate degree in political science, permission to release his transcripts. Former President George W. Bush and presidential contenders Al Gore and John Kerry all released their college transcripts.
Obama did not agree to the release of his application to the Illinois State Bar, which would have cleared up intermittent allegations that his application may have been inaccurate.
Obama did not release records from his time at Harvard Law School.
During the presidential campaign, McCains campaign released a full list of all online donors. Obamas campaign still has not released the names of those who donated at least one-third of the $750 million he raised.

Ironically, Obama accused the Bush White House of being “one of the most secretive administrations in our history,” and chided then-Sen. Hillary Clinton for not releasing her White House schedules.

Jennifer, I stopped after reading the first paragraph. How could you charaterized Obama’s campaign as “brilliant.”? It was filled with deceipt and lies. I know what you’re getting at, but at least add a phrase acknowledging what I think most of us agree on.

I am also a writer, and I am careful not to criticize or nitpik others of my endeavor, but the baseline perception of your comments is a bit chilling — his campaign might have been politically “brilliant” but realistically “contemptable.”

Guess I am one of the ones who thinks that it is too soon to analyze Obama’s presidency. He has not even been in office 8 months yet, and the economy is ….well, I don’t know what it is. I have been disappointed in some things, without question. However, am giving it some time.

What can I say? Folks like myself calmly presented evidence long before the election showing that Barack Obama is a radical leftist in the tradition of Saul Alinsky and Martin Luther King, Jr. The problem, of course, is that few people ever heard of the Chicago leftist and even fewer know the truth about the murdered civil rights leader. Those who attended Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the other Ivy League schools received an overall mediocre education. There are simply too many books and writings they have never read.
Barack Obama is a poorly educated man. This is so obvious that it is beyond serious debate. Alas, the majority of our fellow citizens have bought into the con job that a soft science credential awarded by Harvard is actually worth the paper it is printed on. They have no idea that a liberal arts degree from this vastly overrated academic institution is normally proof of intellectual prostitution. The exceptions are perhaps few and far between. We can only hope that this nonsense ends sometime in the near future.

Rubin describes some situations close to reality, but she’s going to kill her readers with depression, gloom and doom. Has she traded her clunker yet?

Even Congress has lifted their spirits and are working to come up with health care legislation. You can tell that they are thinking of the best compromise to satisfy their constituents and the welfare of the country. Congratulations, Dems & Reps!

Anyone that paid attention and had a shred of street smarts knew this guy for what he is. He is a redical left wing narcissistic sociopath. Want more proof? Wait until 2010 and 2012. However, the conservatives have to get their identity back and quit being dem-lite. Either way, both will destroy this country for generations.

This, of course, comes as no surprise to those who were listening to the drivel (“Words, just words”) coming out of Obambi at this time last year and comparing it to his bio and his statements of his views. When his associations and interviews were examined, they pointed left. Angie Merkel saw through him from the start, but she grew up with people like him running the show.

I would be surprised to see many that voted for this guy to actually post. There could be a few though and if so I wonder if they now wish they had not cast their ballot. I never believed any of his rhetoric in the first place. His voting record was quite enough for me.

The OBMan, Jennifer, is no doctor. He has no knowledge of the health care field.

The brown eyed handsome man doesn’t care a whit about quality health care for Americans. This is just another part of his agenda to socialize America.

President Obama is as cold and calculating a leftist as you can name past or present.

If Stalin or Lenin were the teacher, Obama would be sitting at the head of the class with red stars all over his desk.

Using Acorn to help Franken steal an election. Inserting a tax cheat in the position of head of the IRS. Getting Black Panthers off after they committed blatant acts of voter intimidation in Philadelphia. Recklessly calling a great cop a stupid racist sob, and then refusing to apologize for it. Sticking a racist, bigot who hates white males on the supreme court. Trying to destroy the free enterprise system. Spending money the country doesn’t have whose accumulated interest is a country bankrupting time bomb that’ll be going off in the faces of us, our children and our children’s children.

The boy king has had a busy 6 plus months.

Trying to shove through a disasterous health care program that will succeed only in rationing health care, greatly reducing the quality of our care, creating two and three months backups to get important diagnostics and life saving procedures like open heart surgery, while killing private work offered plans you now have.

There is no chance in hell that an avowed socialist who’s had his coming out party in the last 6 months trying to destroy everything that was good and effective and decent about
America, is going to change his spots now.

This is the last hurrah for the Democrats. They know it. Spector in Texas found it out today.

Obama and his lackies are salting away millions of your tax dollars, and you’ll never see them again. Come 2012, and the Democrat defeat, they’ll be flying out of this country. Trust me. Never to be seen here again.

Don’t believe anything a Democrat tells you. For now it’s like the Battle of the Bulge. The enemy all looks the same. You can’t tell the honest Democrats from the comrades.

Just one solution. Don’t hesitate. When you get a chance to vote a Democrat out. Take it. Remember what John Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Well, voting the Democrats out is now a monumental thing that you can do to save your country.

When Obama talks, remember he’s a socialist lier. He doesn’t give a rats ass about you or your mother’s and father’s America.

Obama is the closest thing to an anti-christ that you will ever know in your lifetime.

Every day if we go down Barack’s health care road will be like rush hour on the LIE. Backups for fifty sixty miles. The people who will be made to wait months will end up thoroughly frustrated for both themselves and their loved ones.

Instead of a doctor putting a tongue depressor in their mouth as part of an examination, these probably older folks will likely end up with the barrel of a snub nosed 38 calibre gun in their mouth. So as not to be a burden on their kids.

Obama has every intent to push these poor sick souls to the breaking point.

He wants socialized medicine and that’s it.

Jennifer, don’t be naive about Barack and his comrades intentions. The Stimulus I package, in one way or another has succeeded in providing the taxpayer cash that’s being salted away by the millions into Caymen Islands bank’s blind trust accounts for thousands of loyal socialist leaning Democrats.

Obama has no intention of winning a second term. So don’t offer us this insight that he may get a lot of Americans mad at him. You write breathily:

“Whether Obama can recapture the support of these voters and get them to turn out to the same degree that they did in 2008 remains to be seen. But you can’t win elections with only the left sliver of the electorate. And it’s going to be hard to fool all the rest of the voters a second time.

Jennifer, your final paragraph has the naivete of a schoolgirl build into it. They’ll be no second term.

Obama and his crew will live out their years outside the United States in the lap of luxury.

Of course, in these next 3 and a half years, he’s planning to do all the damage he can. Making it easy to steal missile defense secrets. Giving Israel only lip service support.

Barack would rather it not appear that in Afghanistan and Iraq his policies snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. But already he’s furthered the communist causes all around the world. And made the United States a much less safe a place to live.

The drill used to be at the end of a President’s tenure, the opposing party would want to know if you were safer (better off) now or then (four years ago).

Well, in Barack’s administration the question has to be brought up every 60 days because he has so much power to do so much damage to what we’ve always thought of as America.

Jennifer, I have no idea how many Obama voters feel let down. It doesn’t really matter. The fact is, he’s let the country down. He’s the fox in the chicken coup. And when I say that I mean Barack isn’t like us. Culturally he’s the farthest thing I can think of to being an American. He detests what America stands for. Need proof. He’s always apologizing for American wherever foreign shores he travels to.

The greatest country even created, the experiment in freedom and democracy that won war after war. Sent tyrants and people who thought they were supermen to boot hill.

Obama never cared about that. He cared about Bill Ayers stomping on the American flag. Barack thought it was a good symbol of the need to turn the country to communism or socialism or whatever you want to call it. To spread the wealth.

I’m not surprised if it turns out he wasn’t an American citizen because he surely doesn’t think like one, or act like one.

His heroes are socialists and communists. Why would anybody think he should be our President.

A President should love his country not love another system of government. We don’t have a history of stealing elections in this country. But Acorn and Obama and Albert Franken stole one. A big one. The irony is that enough Democrats represent constituencies that comprise loyal Americans. They’re telling their senators to act like Americans when they vote on bills. Don’t try to turn us into Obaminable socialists.

Why, Obama and his henchmen don’t even read the bills. A few Republicans who were asked for no input in these socialist treatises took it upon themselves to read them. And were sickened by what they saw.

Time is past to care what President Obama says. The proof is in the pudding. You can tell where his head is at by what he’s done.

He’s like one of those wrecking balls that knock down buildings.

But he’s trying to knock down a country.

Join me. In one way or another, we have to communicate to President Obama that he’s skating on thin ice. A lot of Americans are drawing lines in the sand.

President Obama, from this day forward, you proceed at your own political risk.

The willingness to be deceived, so clearly illustrated by the 2008 obama voters who now cry foul, included a passivity which accepted the decisions, power and conclusions of another while suspending the responsibility and privilege of individual thinking and decision making.

I’m sure a good portion of his deceived voters would like us to think they were just overwhelmed (by what, I’m not sure) and really “had no choice”.

It would be more comfortable for them if they could somehow show that in their willingness to be deceived, no mental choices were made by them, no moral issues evaluated by them. I do understand why they are embarrassed and chagrined at their current state of exposure as the whole world gets to see what their poor choices and lousy evaluations have brought upon us all.

In a free society, which we still are as of this date, keep this in mind: in order to deceive, the deceiver has to find those willing to BE deceived.

If you suspended disbelief in order to belive him, you can reinstate disbelief today in order to fight him.

If you made lousy choices because you believed him and you just “wanted to like him”, you can make better choices today based on tough experience.

If you failed to make moral evaluations consistent with your own convictions and have now realized that, well–make some consistent moral evaluations starting now. Buy a T-shirt that says, “Meet at the old mill. We ride at dawn.”…or something like that.

All i can say is… I TOLD YOU SO!! Now we need to pray for Devine intervention to rid us of this horrible cancer “we the people” sent to the most powerful office in the world. To bad the “mob” has been dissassembled, they knew how to eliminate just such problems.

Bravo Rachel Peepers! You are very correct that “Jennifer, your final paragraph has the naivete of a schoolgirl build into it. They’ll be NO SECOND term.”
I also think BHO has never had interest in 2 terms. As a lame duck prez, he is now free to do as much damage as possible and could care less for any constituent group that does not help him advance his agenda.
This is SOP for all of BO’s ‘jobs’. He doesn’t actually want to do the work, is not capable of leading and has always been angling for his next step up. Not only Ms. Rubin but a lot of others are naive to consider this cipher Obama to any other POTUS…he is leading the Left to victory or dismal defeat. I intend to do what I can to defeat Obama and destroy the Drats for a long time.

#15 sodacrackers. To beat ACORN and their bogus voter registrations we can do this. Follow the procedure that’s used in Iraq to prevent multiple voting. When a person votes, he/she dips a finger in ink. It will prevent a person from voting more than once. All the bogus registrations will mean nothing.

I feel extremely let down. I have come to realize the man cannot speak eloquently without his teleprompter. It is evident in his interviews. My gut feeling during the campaign was that this guy did not have enough experience to hold the office of the presidency, and it is showing. I am finding myself actually missing George W Bush, and that is just scary. Even though Bush was not a great speaker, I felt most of the time he meant what he said. This guy is blowing smoke up our butts most of the time. I am not sure he even knows what he believes. I was so hopeful for the future when I voted for him, but now, I find myself worried even more. This guy may be scary!!!!

I think he is doing a good job considering the crisis we are currently in! It will take a great deal of care and skill to put America back on track, but I think he has the capacity to be a wonderful leader.

I voted for Obama. I’m glad I did, now more than ever. It’s long overdue that we take the country out of the hands of people who don’t understand the true meaning of freedom and liberty and justice and fairness and hard work.

And as this economy continues to rebound, you’ll conveniently forget all your misinformed predictions of certain failure and be left with, “The economy would have turned around anyway. Obama just made it take longer.” This pathetic and meme is already creeping into the relentless rationalizing of the right.

But fear not, we liberals won’t hold it against you. We just won’t let you hold power anymore. You see, power is like a circular saw, you have to know what you’re doing to be safe and effective. And since we can’t trust you with such potentially dangerous devices, you can just sit out in the yard with a PBR while we rebuild the shining city on a hill that you conservatives destroyed.

4. bobby bb:
Guess I am one of the ones who thinks that it is too soon to analyze Obama’s presidency. He has not even been in office 8 months yet, and the economy is ….well, I don’t know what it is. I have been disappointed in some things, without question. However, am giving it some time.

~~~~~
You remind me of a parent at my children’s first elementary school. The principle was an utter incompetent – but this parent kept wanting to giver her a chance, and was quite adament the critical parents who were invovled with the school were “overly critical”. Teachers were leaving, children were being transfered (I finally transfered mine), problems with students were escalating at a geometric rate. Eventaully a new superintendent came and did the only thing he could – transfer her to a non-supervisory position at a district office. (don’t'cha just love unions? /sarc.)

#27 Landis “I think he is doing a good job considering the crisis we are currently in!”

I don’t and remember the Jimmy Carter years and he is doing the same only more of it that Carter did.

This country to start lowering the deficit must do two things which are cutting spending and unnecessary government jobs and programs and reduce taxes. John Kennedy cut taxes and the revenues to the federal government went up the Reagan in 1980 did the same with the same results and then in 2000 George Bush also cut taxes which raised revenues. See the below link about what has happened and is happening to revenue.

20. Anonymous:
Bravo Rachel Peepers! You are very correct that “Jennifer, your final paragraph has the naivete of a schoolgirl build into it. They’ll be NO SECOND term.”
I also think BHO has never had interest in 2 terms.

~~~~~

It has been my gut feeling/observation basesd upon his personality, that while there will be no second term, there will be some “emergency” suspending elections in 2012. So, while techinically he will be a “one term” president, we won’t be rid of him either.

21. Paul -Indiana:
Are you still proud that you voted for Obama? And you who didn’t bother to vote because ‘my vote doesn’t matter’, remember that Obambi got in with only the votes from 31% of the electorate.

~~~

And to the one’s who voted third party to protest McCain. How’s that working for you?

Senator Obama did indeed run a brilliant campaign; however, his timing was better than anything else as most people were tired of the Republicans & President George W. Bush. Yet beyond the superficial slogans, candidate Obama presented no real substance since he true goals remained in the shadows. However, Obama made no compunction that he wanted to remake America into a Socialist Republic, but the people refused to listen. They could not get beyond his skin color & his slick teleprompter scripts.

The chickens have come home to roost. Given President Obama is in politics for the power itself, he does not care what Americans think. He regularly threw anyone & everyone under the bus for his ambitions–including his white grandmother. Nothing is beyond this man’s need for more power.

However, I do see a sliver of hope as the people are outright rejecting the little Marxist given the other Democrats have returned to their districts to find angry constituents at their town hall meetings.

President Obama will be irrelevant by 2010 since he will lose control of Congress. The little tin pot wannabe dictator will not be happy…

18. Meryl:
“Yes. Now there’s a bumper sticker: “Do you feel safer than you did 12 months ago?”

Nope. You missed it by THIS much. You see, for that concept to work, you need to make the connection more direct and relevant to the original reference. Here, let me show you . . . “Do you feel safer than you did four months ago?” (Or, depending where we are in the political calendar, “four years ago.”) There you go, no charge.

Conservatives make jokes like they make policy . . . snidely and selfishly and oddly out of sync with what is right and effective. Keep trying, You’ll get it one day. I’m guessing in early November, 2024.

ked5: It has been my gut feeling/observation basesd upon his personality, that while there will be no second term, there will be some “emergency” suspending elections in 2012. So, while techinically he will be a “one term” president, we won’t be rid of him either.

I agree with you except with one point: I think it will be 2010, not 2012.

Blarty Blarckleblart:The Birther thing is a non issue. What is an issue is the fact that our president provided services other than mere misappropriation of tax dollars for his slumlord boss back in Chicago. If youre wondering which services in particular, I recommend one of those videos that have an “all male cast.” How’s that for a meme?

Obama was never vetted nor qualified as a future President.
Maybe Oprah or the media or both, pushed this man down the American people’s throats.
We still know little about him: he still hasn’t joined a church, we have no clue if he’s an American citizen, has he any family that he continues to see…his aunt, his step father, his half brother, his Kenya stepmother…the list goes on and on……
The worst thing about this whole dilemis is that as a concerned American why is it that I am considered wacho’s or a racist if I ask about anything against Obama and his past?
It’s frightening.

PEOPLE! The democrats are going to go down for the EXACT SAME reason that the republicans went down;hubris, greed, and scandal. The question is, when the republicans return to power, will conservatives have the backbone to police that party? Will we tolerate deficit spending like we did under Bush? Will we tolerate getting into wars and NOT winning? Will we make excuses for failure? Will we throw up the same moral equivalence that the dems are finding so convenient right now?

I think the President is only good at campaigns. He is socialistic, does not listen to the people, has his own agenda and will bring about hurtful changes. He is totally wrong to force any policy down the throat of Democracy. This is becoming a very dictatorial government.

Jennifer is expounding upon a phenomenon to many independents and moderates, but those of us who took the time to research Candidate Obama could have predicted most of what has been presented as Administration policy thus far. There are only three surprises to date.

The first would be the retention of Robert Gates as SecDef. I was heartened by that smart decision. The second is that the President has not pushed the gay agenda as rapidly as I believed he would. He had alot of gay support and I thought he would pay off quicker than he has. And finally, I have been surprised by the President’s prosecution of the Afghan conflict. He has continued most of the Bush strategies including continued deployment of Predators and he has increased troops on the ground. I applaud this adoption and would point out that the only question now is whether he has the toughness to stick it out. He has my support there.

The rest of his policy implementation and stances are predictable based on his past history. He has always run with an antisemitic crowd. The fact that American Jews were hoodwinked by his campaign rhetoric is a comentary, unfortunately, on how gulible as a community they were. I believe he recieved more than 70% of the Jewish vote.

His economic stance has been exactly in tune with his voting record in the Illinois legislature and the US Senate. He doesn’t have any track record of fiscal responsibility or pro growth policies. He always voted against wealth. He has always supported labor above all else. He had little private sector experience prior to nomination. The only enterprise he ran failed spectacularly, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. No surprises there.

His foriegn policy advocacy has always been Woodrow Wilson meets Jimmy Carter. Walk softly and carry a sponge rubber bat, Afghanistan excepted. His perception of real politic is distorted beyond comprehension. It was predictable he would apologize for America, that was what he was taught, that America was a racist and imperialist nation. That this comes as any surprise shows that someone wasn’t paying attention.

In fact 90% of what President Obama has done comes as no surprise to those of us who bothered to independently research the man. Luckily the moderates and independents are beginning to wake up.

I voted for Sarah and some old guy dragging her down. My conscience is clear.

I hope the next election won’t be dominated by ACORN and Black Panthers with semi-automatic weapons at the polling stations but understand Eric Holder and Rahm Emanuel will be organizing their efforts. In other words, no change from the Democrat m.o. of the 2008 election.

Now & Then, are you prepared to lose your job when the economy rebounds? Inflation will happen when the economy rebounds given all the money that has been printed to date by the treasury. Are you braced for several tax increases? Are you ready to give up more of hard earned salary for the One?

BB, stop with the Bush Derangement Syndrome. We are talking about the little Marxist, President Obama. Your need to change to the subject tells me you must swim out of the shallows & go to the deep end of the pool. Otherwise, please stay in the kiddie pool with the other children. I’m talking to you to Now & Then & Vivo.

BobbyBB, your thesis would hold true had President Obama not passed the so-called “stimulus” bill which is more money than all previous 43 Presidents combined, coupled with the absolute failure of the same “stimulus.” The “stimulus” will be an albatross around Obama’s neck for the next 3 years as each rotten egg continues to hatch. President Obama has done more damage in 6 months than I thought possible.

President Obama & the Democrats have overreached as they meet hostile constituents in August. These same legislatures vote for Obamacare, in any form, at their own peril. However, given Porkulus is still a poison pill, many of these legislatures may find their political careers cut short in 2010….

I will give you credit for having the courage to actually declare your political affiliation. Most leftists refuse the appellation. Your honest in self description. Here’s some more honesty for you, I am very proud to be a conservative. I know you don’t agree but, I appreciate your accuracy.

1. Offended the Queen of England.
2. Bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia.
3. Praised the Marxist Daniel Ortega.
4. Kissed Socialist Hugo Chavez on the cheek.
5. Endorsed the Socialist Evo Morales of Bolivia.
6. Sided with Hugo Chavez and Communist Fidel Castro against Honduras.
7. Announced we would meet with Iranians with no pre-conditions while they’re building their nuclear weapons.
8. Gave away billions to AIG also without pre-conditions.
9. Expanded the bailouts.
10. Insulted everyone who has ever loved a Special Olympian.
11. Doubled our national debt.
12. Announced the termination of our new missile defense system the day after North Korea launched an ICBM.
13. Released information on U.S. intelligence gathering despite urgings of his own CIA director and the prior four CIA directors.
14. Accepted without comment that five of his cabinet members cheated on their taxes and two other nominees withdrew after they couldn’t take the heat.
15. Appointed a Homeland Security Chief who identified military veterans and abortion opponents as “dangers to the nation.”
16. Ordered that the word “terrorism” no longer be used and instead refers to such acts as “man made disasters.”
17. Circled the globe to publicly apologize for America’s world leadership.
18. Told the Mexican president that the violence in their country was because of us.
19. Politicized the census by moving it into the White House from the Department of Commerce.
20. Appointed as Attorney General the man who orchestrated the forced removal and expulsion to Cuba of a 9-year-old whose mother died trying to bring him to freedom in the United States.
21. Salutes as heroes three Navy SEALS who took down three terrorists who threatened one American life and the next day announces members of the Bush administration may stand trial for “torturing” three 9/11 terrorists by pouring water up their noses.
22. Low altitude photo shoot of Air Force One over New York City that frightened thousands of New Yorkers.
23. Sent his National Defense Advisor to Europe to assure them that the US will no longer treat Israel in a special manner and they might be on their own with the Muslims.
24. Praised Jimmy Carter’s trip to Gaza where he sided with terrorist Hamas against Israel.
25. Nationalized General Motors and Chrysler while turning shareholder control over to the unions and freezing out retired investors who owned their bonds. Committed unlimited taxpayer billions in the process.
26. Passed a huge energy tax in the House that will make American industry even less competitive while costing homeowners thousands per year.
27. Announced nationalized health care “reform” that will strip seniors of their Medicare, cut pay of physicians, increase taxes yet another $1 trillion, and put everyone on rationed care with government bureaucrats deciding who gets care and who doesn’t. (See cartoon.)

Bloomberg: Daschle says, “Health care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them,” while former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm says seniors have “a duty to die.”

“I voted for Obama. I’m glad I did, now more than ever. It’s long overdue that we take the country out of the hands of people who don’t understand the true meaning of freedom and liberty and justice and fairness and hard work.”

Have you lost what little must be left of your feeble mind? With entitlements and wealth redistribution the prime goal of the liberals, you have no idea of any of the concepts you mentioned.

You ignorant meddlers cannot accept the fact that taking from those who produce in order to give to those who do not is one of the fundamental doctrines of socialism, and has nothing whatsoever to do with freedom and liberty. It also happens to be Obama’s primary goal, and if you cannot see this then you are indeed blind and/or foolish.

I’ll bet bottom dollar that you are younger than 30, grossly uneducated, unemployed, and enjoy the fact that all you have to do is hold out your hand and somebody will feel sorry for you and hand you things. You and your kind are a cancer, one that desparately needs to be excised from our society.

I for one, am very happy that I voted for Obama and that he is doing so well. I’m sure that if his advisers let him release all the documents that they have sealed, you would understand why he does what he does and realize how blessed we are to have him and his beloved family in the White House!

55. Irate Nate:
“Now and Then . . . I’ll bet bottom dollar that you are younger than 30, grossly uneducated, unemployed, and enjoy the fact that all you have to do is hold out your hand and somebody will feel sorry for you and hand you things.”

Barack’s little pit bull (no lipstick), Rahm Emanuel, who twists arms of networks to get his guy on (yet) again, for a chance to (again) say nothing of substance (even the networks were complaining to the White House, they lose millions putting Barack on in prime time & he doesn’t say anything new…), has been using Chicago style arm twisting on some other folks as well…

Jennifer Rubin, I would cast that critical eye at your own parent publication. There isn’t a story with more than 60 comments anywhere on the front page. If anyone’s losing ground, its your kooky party and its asinine and easily revealed platform based on imaginary birth plots and shouting down real discourse. Because most voters are older than twelve, they saw that your party had no ideas when it controlled both congress and the executive–it had no concerns about healthcare, no concerns about the economy, no concerns about the huge deficits being built up by military adventurism. Its a party of zeros, championed by the kind of annoying people most Americans know only too well as the buttinskies of their communities. I think most people recognize the dozen or so shouters at the health care town halls as the same kind of people they avoid at the supermarket.

Again, your strategies appeal to about a quarter of the electorate, the hardcore Republicans, but its leaving people with functioning cerebellums out in the cold.

“I for one, am very happy that I voted for Obama and that he is doing so well. I’m sure that if his advisers let him release all the documents that they have sealed, you would understand why he does what he does and realize how blessed we are to have him and his beloved family in the White House!”

Facetious much? Doh-boy’z ‘handlers’ most assuredly would not like any purposely sealed documents to ‘come to light’. It’s amazing that Doh’s mother’s nude pictures were actually outed [even though the media is strangely 'hush-hush' on the matter]. I mean, if that had been Palin’s mom/sister/5th cousin, that crap would be VIRAL by now.

I’ll bet bottom dollar that you are younger than 30, grossly uneducated, unemployed, and enjoy the fact that all you have to do is hold out your hand and somebody will feel sorry for you and hand you things. You and your kind are a cancer, one that desparately needs to be excised from our society.

~~

Or like my nephew – 30ish fine arts major who thinks that means he’s educated. (it will be interesting to see his attitudes towards redistribution/socialism when all his (formerly) “rich clients” can no longer afford to have him play for their soirees). He also relies upon his lawyer wife to pay most of the bills.

It won’t be the hardcore Obama Sycophants that troll post around here that are starting to reconsider there votes. Likewise, the rank and file here are likely never going to support Obama. One group thinks that invasive government regulation, Chicago style political intimidation and corruption, punitive taxation of our most productive citizens, and wealth re-distribution as a vote buying scheme are the way to anything other then national decline. Then we have the reality based crowd.

Those that are changing their minds are the ones that don’t necessarily pay much attention beyond the MSM hype, and are starting to see what this administration and congress are really doing. The American people are starting to see a picture of what bringing European style democratic socialism to America looks like and they do not like what they are seeing.

It makes me wonder if we need a brief hard left turn every couple decades to get our compass straight again.

#24 Paul, I thought of the same thing, dipping the thumb or finger in indelible ink. I think it is a good idea, however, the democrats cry foul every single time anyone even mentions any way to make voting more legitimate.

I am starting to think we are a third world country already. I wonder if all those countries we have helped over all the years will be there for us?

Obama and his handlers are all communists. Unfortunately, most Americans have been educated by a government labor union and are sympathetic with communist rhetoric. Don’t oversell this man’s lack of popularity. Yes, he is losing his popularity, but I am confident that this country will continue to elect leftists. After all, 10,000,000 new leftists graduate from our government schools every year. Who is doing anything about that!

Some of tthe commentators regarding this Rubin piece think that 2012 is already sown up for the President’s reelection. They are ignoring it’s central point. Moderates and independents voted for Obama in droves. He far out polled McCain with those voters. He has already lost substantial support from these voting blocks to date. He will have to rebuild that support in order to get reelected in 2012.

2012 is a very long way off. If the economy rebounds and inflation is low he will be reelected. If the economy is soft and inflation kicks in he will have a much harder job campaigning. If he triangulates right he will have a chance. If he does not, his chance is greatly reduced. Unlike President Clinton, this President will have a very hard time triangulating. It is just not part of his political DNA. Clinton got elected in a conservative state. Obama has never pulled off such a feat.

..tour de force, Allie, tour de force! With this and Hot Air’s Obamateurism of the Week, one could put together a pretty good best seller. And it would be a collector’s item for our grandchildren — because nobody’s gonna ever believed we lived through an administration as incompetent as this one.

As far as I can see his supporters have not been let down at all. His totalitarian state agenda is in full force. Money is flowing into his community front groups by the billions. His unelected or selected Tsars are contoling the flow of money and government priorieties. He has the Chicago muscle in place to bully the unwilling. He has the leftest media in his back pocket. The Socialist homesteaders in Congress are not going anywhere. They will get reelected, no matter what. Just because the public hates every initiative he has put forth regarding health care does not mean a thing. He continues to feed us bull*** because there are enough people who like bull**** and this keeps him viable.

However those people who were willingly mislead during the elections, they are the ones who are disappointed. All they knew was that he was not Bush or Republican. They just wanted change but thy never thought for a moment he would be this radical. Actually neither did I. His ruthlessness is astounding. He acts if he does not care if he ever gets reelected. Well he does plan to get reelected as soon as he legalizes 20 million illegal aliens. With Hispanics, union members, government employees, and welfare recipients he feels he has an unbeatable margin. And he maybe right. Goodbye July 4th, hello May 1st.

As far as I can see his supporters have not been let down at all. His totalitarian state agenda is in full force. Money is flowing into his community front groups by the billions. His unelected or selected Tsars are controlling the flow of money and government priorieties. He has the Chicago muscle in place to bully the unwilling. He has the leftest media in his back pocket. The Socialist homesteaders in Congress are not going anywhere. They will get reelected, no matter what. Just because the public hates every initiative he has put forth regarding health care does not mean a thing. He continues to feed us bull*** because there are enough people who like bull**** and this keeps him viable.

However those people who were willingly mislead during the elections, they are the ones who are disappointed. All they knew was that he was not Bush or Republican. They just wanted change but thy never thought for a moment he would be this radical. Actually neither did I. His ruthlessness is astounding. He acts if he does not care if he ever gets reelected. Well he does plan to get reelected as soon as he legalizes 20 million illegal aliens. With Hispanics, union members, government employees, and welfare recipients he feels he has an unbeatable margin. And he maybe right. Goodbye July 4th, hello May 1st.

#30. Now and Then:
I voted for Obama. I’m glad I did, now more than ever. It’s long overdue that we take the country out of the hands of people who don’t understand the true meaning of freedom and liberty and justice and fairness and hard work.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Freedom of speech (The Fairness Doctrine). Look it up. Liberty (Government takeover of banks, car dealerships, health care, etc., Black Panthers carrying night sticks are ok at poling places) Justice (Our justice is no longer blind, we have protected classes of people: black, native American, gay, bisexual, transsexual, illegals, etc. “Hate” crimes? All crime is hateful.) Fairness (Work hard for your family and we, the benevolent government will take as much as we can possibly get from you. Don’t work at all and we will take care of you. Just give us your vote please. Communism/Socialism only works until you run out of workers and that happens pretty fast)
Hard work. (Most of the people in the current administration have never really worked a day in their lives. They get money the same way a thief does: they take it from someone who earned it. And they are printing it and spending it faster than any other president.)

The libs must be worried. The trolls are out in full force–I’ve been a reader of this website for a long time and can’t remember so much trolling. Good luck to you liberal socialists. You’re going to need it. We will take our country back. That’s a promise.

“Some of the commentators regarding this Rubin piece think that 2012 is already sown up for the President’s reelection..Moderates and independents voted for Obama in droves. He far out polled McCain with those voters. He has already lost substantial support from these voting blocks to date..Unlike President Clinton, this President will have a very hard time triangulating. It is just not part of his political DNA.”

I agree; you make some excellent points and as for triangulating, lordy, after that strained and uncomfortable attempt to extricate his foot from his mouth with a “beer summit”, it will be fun to watch this boob triangulate.

NOW and then and Blarky…your need to inhale upon BHO’s crack pipe is as great as your messiah’s need to inhale on the money spigot of his (currently incarcerated) slumlord boss back in chicago. It’s nauseating and weak minded, but cheezy and desperate…I’m not sure how you manage that all in one morning.

Need to make some distinctions here folks. Tools like Now and Them, Blarty, harpo, and the drive bys are not liberals. Liberals are not the left, any more than moderates are the right.

Liberals and moderates are two sides of the same coin. While moderates tend to have a higher identification with republican platforms, and liberals with democrat platforms, there are liberal republicans and moderate democrats. These voters can hold both viewpoints in measure also – liberal on some issues, moderate on others. The majority of both moderates and liberals are actually independent voters. And they vote issues central to their lives, not matters of conservative or progressive political theory.

These are the people who decide elections. The movement back and forth of the independents and to a lesser extent the moderate and liberal republicans and democrats.

These are the people that Obama is losing fast. He may get them back in time for 20012, but I suspect that the 2010 midterms are a lost cause for the democrats at this point and that will make things tough for Obama.

Conservatives and Progressives are two sides of another coin. Conservatives almost entirely stand with republican platforms and progressive with democrat, but those are marriages of convenience. Progressives no more own the democrats than the conservatives do the republicans. Calling them the left and the right works to some extent, but begs the question that there are positions on both the right and the left beyond what even conservatives or progressives can stomach (moreso conservatives, because, by their very nature, progressives accommodate their fringes more easily).

These people do not decide elections. Each camp predictably votes their party or not at all. And there aren’t enough of either to decide an election.

The tools stinking the place up are progressives, not liberals. On this site, you get the low end progressive cannon fodder. Useful fools. Liars to a one. Confused, ignorant nannystaters. But they are not the criminally dangerous social engineers that their handlers and enablers are. They are tools, pointed and them kicked in a particular direction, nothing more. They will convince no one that their positions have merit, here or elsewhere.

For example, there are frequent commenters here who are liberals as far as I can tell (as well as moderates). While I may take issue with statements sometimes made by liberal posters here, I try to keep an open mind and there are other statements that I accept as logical and defensible.

There are statements that vivo for example, a liberal in my book, has made that I find informative and the possibility of integrating some aspects into how I view things exists.

I can not think of a single statement made by blarty, harpo, now and then, of any of their other or earlier incarnations here that that could convince me of anything more than their vapid stupidity.

You see, power is like a circular saw, you have to know what you’re doing to be safe and effective. And since we can’t trust you with such potentially dangerous devices, you can just sit out in the yard with a PBR while we rebuild the shining city on a hill that you conservatives destroyed.

I run my own life my own way. Try messing with that and you’ll find out about circular saws alright.

Yeah, I really regret not voting for the guy whose idea of constructive foreign policy is to sing songs about bombing other countries. The guy who didn’t even have the backbone to stand up for his own anti-torture values. The guy who had absolutely no control over his own campaign. The guy whose campaign advisor said that this “was a mental recession”. The guy who didn’t know how many houses he owned. The guy who very possibly could have passed away before his term ended, leaving the fate of the nation in the hands of a barely literate creationist who couldn’t even handle the job of governor.

You are backing my point expressed earlier, not alot of surprises from President Obama. The radical element has always been part of his makeup and he has only made some attempt to hide it. He is doing what one would predict he would do if one took the time to research his past. I believe you are not surprised. Neither am I. The ones surprised are the ones who didn’t bother to learn for themselves.

You seem not as stupid as your brethren. And you’re right, Obama may be losing the support of the moderates and independents who voted for him–but that doesn’t mean they’ll vote Republican, a point Republicans would do well to mind. If they had minds. Generic congressional polls aside [very useless, IMHO], there’s no evidence that Republicans are picking up the support Obama is losing. And if the current overwhelmingly stupid Republican discourse continues, there’s absolutely no chance anyone in their right mind will vote for Republicans. They may stay at home, leaving it a Dem vs. Republican contest, and in that case, Democrats have the advantage anyway in terms of sheer numbers.

There is no trust or honor in the way Obama and the leaders of Congress are running this country. The RUSH to pass Bills is insane. The arrogrance of I don’t care what people think of me is not the point. The point is 1/2 the nation did not vote for this President or his agenda. He has lied. He has not been truthful with his remarks. He has gone abroad and apologised for the US past mistakes. His appointments of tax cheaters, an empathic judge, Chicago cronies, is a disgraceful start. This country deserved better. Now people have woken up to the bias press of Obama and demanded accountability. I want my country back.

60. Moho: “Its a party of zeros, championed by the kind of annoying people most Americans know only too well as the buttinskies of their communities. I think most people recognize the dozen or so shouters at the health care town halls as the same kind of people they avoid at the supermarket. “

Surely these group members have been betrayed, and will be betrayed in the future by Zero, but to think they supported him because of policy is incorrect. These people were desperate to see all of their fantasies housed in one person and they altered reality to find their fantasies in Obambi. I mean much of the reality of Zero was clearly visible in his books and none of these “tricked” supporters wanted to read the books.

Had some smooth-talking candidate, on the Dem side, been actively working against these voter’s pet projects these voters would have simply defined their interest as working against their interest, sort of like AARP, AMA today and NOW under Bill Clinton.

So someone who disagrees with your opinion is stupid. This is a favorite and shopworn liberal tactic, Republicans are stupid.When someone doesn’t agree with your point of view you resort to an ad hominem attack.

I stongly disagree with the President on most of his policies, but I can tell you one thing, he is not stupid. I think he is misguided and poorly educated about international relations, economics, US history, and, the evidence shows, he lacks experience in the private sector. That does not amount to stupidity.

If you want to be right about stupid look no further than Joe Biden. Now he truly is a dim bulb. He was right near the bottom of his class in law school and got nailed for plagiarizm while at Syracuse. He learned nothing from the experience and plagiarized an entire speech during his 1988 campaign. He has repeatedly hurt the credibility of the President by inserting his foot in his mouth by saying the inadvised. This from a 60+ year old former Senator who is supposed to know better. He is the Colonel Klink of the Democrat party, a party made up of many smart people, most of whom I disagree with.

You’d read a whole lot more credibly if you cut out the personal attacks.

“And it’s going to be hard to fool all the rest of the voters a second time.”

Obama’s plan seems to be to surf from one crisis to another. By invoking perpetual crises, he seems to believe that he can persuade Americans that the failure to act is worse than not acting. His approach is to vaguely describe what policies he would support, and then to create the appearance that he is getting results by setting deadlines. Adding it all together: Obama’s goal has been to fool the voters into thinking that he is knowledgable and competent, when he is not. Results are irrelevant because the crises provide enough uncertainty to hide the incompetence.

His challenge is now to continue this charade. People are frustrated to the point where they are giving him leeway to voice his contradictory and untenable positions on issues, despite disagreeing with him. So he survives in spite of himself. Are people ignorant about Obama? Probably. Are people exhausted about having to second-guess a president who showed so much promise? Definitely.

Only when the second-guessing begins in earnest will we see Obama try to drop the most obvious of his charades. However, a lot of damage can be done by then. The real question is how good an actor is he? There are many events that could lead Obama’s ego to come into conflict with his acting ability, as it already has on occasion. I suspect that these internal conflicts will be most visible for “smaller” issues, not the crises he likes so much. One such “small” issue might be the delayed budget, which will pit Obama against himself — Obama the campaigner/legislator vs. Obama the governor. We’ll see how well he takes self-criticism.

“And it’s going to be hard to fool all the rest of the voters a second time.”

Obama’s plan seems to be to surf from one crisis to another. By invoking perpetual crises, he seems to believe that he can persuade Americans that the failure to act is worse than not acting. His approach is to vaguely describe what policies he would support, and then to create the appearance that he is getting results by setting deadlines. Adding it all together: Obama’s goal has been to fool the voters into thinking that he is knowledgable and competent, when he is not. Results are irrelevant because the crises provide enough uncertainty to hide the incompetence.

His challenge is now to continue this charade. People are frustrated to the point where they are giving him leeway to voice his contradictory and untenable positions on issues, despite disagreeing with him. So he survives in spite of himself. Are people ignorant about Obama? Probably. Are people exhausted about having to second-guess a president who showed so much promise? Definitely.

Only when the second-guessing begins in earnest will we see Obama try to drop the most obvious of his charades. However, a lot of damage can be done by then. The real question is how good an actor is he? There are many events that could lead Obama’s ego to come into conflict with his acting ability, as it already has on occasion. I suspect that these internal conflicts will be most visible for “smaller” issues, not the crises he likes so much. One such “small” issue might be the delayed budget, which will pit Obama against himself — Obama the campaigner/legislator vs. Obama the governor. We’ll see how well he takes self-criticism.

60. Moho: “Its a party of zeros, championed by the kind of annoying people most Americans know only too well as the buttinskies of their communities. I think most people recognize the dozen or so shouters at the health care town halls as the same kind of people they avoid at the supermarket. “

I’ve never butted into anyone’s life in my life. Short of taking my money via taxation, I don’t really care what you do. If you notice, the tea party crowd is carrying “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, not “I’m Going To Tread On You” flags.

You seem not as stupid as your brethren. And you’re right, Obama may be losing the support of the moderates and independents who voted for him–but that doesn’t mean they’ll vote Republican, a point Republicans would do well to mind.

Many of them won’t consider it voting for “Republicans”, but voting for “divided government”.

By invoking perpetual crises, he seems to believe that he can persuade Americans that the failure to act is worse than not acting.

This is an active and conscious policy of this administration, largely orchestrated by “never waste a good crisis” Rahm Emanuel.

Keep up the barrage, keep up the avalanche of “changes” night & day, and beat the drum nonstop, we’re in a crisis, we had to do all of this (porkulus, cap and trade, radical changes to healthcare, the banks, the auto companies, housing, etc.) yesterday or we’re doomed. DOOMED !

Emanuel’s cellphone is glued to his ear, all day long, probably all night long, as he tries to keep the chaos alive and the country in a lather.

A cynic would say these tactics are straight out of…Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals…

No, of course not. In the case of Republicans however, there is a high probability that their disagreement with me is based on their own stupidity. The commenter I responded to seemed at least to be able to defend his opinions with deductive reasoning emerging from facts. That’s a lot better than the rest of you. I’m reminded of the flat-head who accosted Hoyer today, saying,

“You’re lying to me. Just because I don’t have sophisticated language, I can recognize a liar when I see one.”

This is, basically, the Republican slogan for 09-10, but one that only appeals to people content with their ignorance and angry at anyone committing the offense of learning anything.

87. Scott M: “Surely these group members have been betrayed, and will be betrayed in the future by Zero, but to think they supported him because of policy is incorrect. These people were desperate to see all of their fantasies housed in one person and they altered reality to find their fantasies in Obambi. I mean much of the reality of Zero was clearly visible in his books and none of these “tricked” supporters wanted to read the books.”

Sorry, pal, but you don’t know **** about ****. Please show me the graph, poll, or data that provides any evidence that shows that Obama voters didn’t understand his policy goals or didn’t read his books.

McCain voters are the same cat ladies and whackjobs screeching at teabagging parties and yelling incoherently at town hall meetings. If anyone is in doubt of who the real delusional morons are in this country, look no further than the birthers, the teabaggers and the townhall shouters to get an idea of how utterly braindead the GOP voter base has become.

I believe by 2010 & 2012, many other people will not find any voters who voted for Senator Obama; his plans will mirror the disastrous Jimmy Carter era. In 1979, there was a man who could not find anyone who voted for Jimmy Carter. I see it happening again with Obama. Voters will not admit they voted for a Statist, selfish, egotistical megalomaniac narcissist. In many ways, President Obama is worse than Jimmy Carter….

The early results on people’s perceptions of the outcome of the stimulus package support this idea.

People with more than one functioning brain cell know that if they ever over-promised and under-delivered like that, at that scale, in their own jobs, they’d be fired. Ultimately, being President is just a job. Of course, Obama has a hard time understanding this because he never had a real job.

I could not resist posting the article that Eugene Robinson wrote in the WSPO

“If there’s been a more clinically insane political phenomenon in my lifetime than the “birthers,” I’ve missed it. Is this what our national discourse has come to? Sheer paranoid fantasy?

This Story
The Berserk ‘Birthers’
Virginia Is for Loonies
I’m talking about the people who have convinced themselves that Barack Obama was not really born in the United States, and thus is ineligible to be president. Even some commentators who usually are among Obama’s most rabid critics have acknowledged that this idea is simply nuts. Yet it persists, out there on the farthest fringes of the right-wing blogosphere. Oh, and also on CNN, which is usually a little closer to reality.

It has been definitively shown that there is not a scintilla of truth, or even the slightest ambiguity, in the whole “birther” idea. Officials in Hawaii have attested again and again that Obama was, in fact, born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961. When the “birthers” demanded to see his birth certificate, state officials produced it. Journalists have looked at this complete non-story from every angle and concluded that it is, in fact, a complete non-story.

To believe otherwise, it’s necessary to explain that birth announcements heralding the arrival of baby boy Barack Obama ran in two Honolulu newspapers in August 1961. So to be a card-carrying “birther,” you have to believe not only that Hawaiian officials conspired to fabricate records but also that “they” — not state officials, necessarily, but the generic malevolent “they” who inevitably lurk behind the deepest, darkest conspiracies — somehow managed to alter or replace clippings in yellowing newspaper archives.

That’s what the less crazy birthers have to contend. The alternative scenario — for those who really ought to put their tinfoil hats back on — is that somehow this was all planned back in 1961: “They” diabolically planted these birth announcements 48 years ago, establishing a false record, so that a chosen infant who was actually born in some foreign land — Kenya? Indonesia? Manchuria? — could be groomed, perhaps programmed, and someday installed in the Oval Office. Cue evil-genius laughter.

These would be people who also believe that Stanley Kubrick’s comic masterpiece, “Dr. Strangelove,” was actually a documentary — and that Obama’s ultimate aim, as cleverly deduced by Gen. Jack D. Ripper, is to “sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

There are probably people out there who think the world is flat, and they’re not worth writing about. The “birthers” wouldn’t be, either, unless you believe a poll released last week by Research 2000 revealing that an astounding 28 percent of Republicans actually think that Obama was not born in the United States and a separate 30 percent are “not sure.” GOP officials need to order more tinfoil.

The survey, commissioned by the liberal Web site Daily Kos, found that 93 percent of Democrats and 83 percent of independents have no doubt — duh — that Obama was born in the United States. That only 42 percent of Republicans are similarly convinced is a fascinating indicator of just how far the Republican Party has drifted from the mainstream.

Also beyond the Outer Limits of sanity is CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, who has been giving prime-time exposure to the “birther” lunacy — even while denying that he believes it. Dobbs’s obsession with the “story” has become an embarrassment to the network, which has tried to position itself as untainted by political bias. Jon Klein, president of CNN’s U.S. division, has pronounced the story “dead” but insists that it’s legitimate for Dobbs to examine the alleged controversy, though in fact no controversy exists.

The “birther” thing is only Dobbs’s latest detour from objective reality. For years, he has crusaded against illegal immigration by citing facts and figures that often turn out to be wrong. Television can confer a kind of pseudo-reality on any manner of nonsense.

Is this an orchestrated campaign to somehow delegitimize Obama’s presidency? Is the fact that he is the first African American president a factor? Is it that some people can’t or won’t accept that he won the election and serves as commander in chief?

Maybe, maybe not. Trying to analyze the “birther” phenomenon would mean taking it seriously, and taking it seriously would be like arguing about the color of unicorns. About all that can be said is that a bunch of lost, confused and frightened people have decided to seek refuge in conspiratorial make-believe. I hope they’re harmless. And I hope they seek help.”

JENNIFER-nothing about Obama is brilliant-like Bill Clinton, he got away with everything because the media played like littler pied pipers and refused to tell anything resembling the truth about him(or any democrat of recent vintage for that matter). Bush gets blamed for the subprime meltdown-Barney Fag Franklin Raines,Chris the Dodderer(using cancer trying to get sympathy, ig John Edwards) Jim Johnson, the Sadlers-all the above should be in Marion Fed pen for what theyve done. Yet even those of us on the right get it wrong often. They HATE us. We need to treat them with ZERO respect.

Moho and Graham, peas in a pod. Still harping smugly about the farcically presumed intelligence of their ilk, who actually believe in Keynes’ Multiplier and the Green Economy;’ who insist that *this* time there really is a free lunch; and can then natter fatuously about “we rebuild the shining city on a hill that you conservatives destroyed.” And don’t even see how hysterically funny in this context their claims of superior intellect are!

“You’re lying to me. Just because I don’t have sophisticated language, I can recognize a liar when I see one.”

What are you reminded of when you see the video of Obama supporters that Zeigler shot on Election Day?

No, of course not. In the case of Republicans however, there is a high probability that their disagreement with me is based on their own stupidity.

Do you have any objective support for your idea that you are intelligent at anything other than the mean in a normal distribution? Believing in Leftist dogma doesn’t make one intelligent.

The commenter I responded to seemed at least to be able to defend his opinions with deductive reasoning emerging from facts.

Get off your high horse. As Thatcher said, “The facts of life are conservative” so anyone who takes the time to study those facts will deduce, consciously or unconsciously, conservative principles from them. Leftist ideology of the Euro-American “progressive” sort is a complete late-comer to history and if it disappears tomorrow, the world would go on much as it has for millenia. If conservatism disappeared tomorrow, the world would turn into a vast gulag, just like every collectivist society in history.

Ha — what clueless, paranoid, hyperventilating rubbish. Most of you guys have no idea whatsoever of how many big holes, broken hinges, missing doorknobs, leaky toilets, “final warning” bills and the like, so to speak, that Bush and his people had left behind. (And I’m guessing that Obama got more than a few unpleasant surprises when he got the full picture). This was never, ever going to be a quick fix as some may have naively hoped, but Obama is doing more than well enough in getting through the honey-do list, including taking care of some loose ends in Afghanistan. Also many of you might want to look up the terms “negotiation” and “diplomacy” — apparently more than a few of you believe that if you don’t hurl rocks, insults and threats, you’re being a weak-willed appeaser. Ummm…No.

My only real complaint is that I rather he left the health care stuff alone until the economy recovers more fully and predictably, and after at least some thorough forensics analyses of health care cash flows are done. Aside from that….

I feel it. A lot of us feel it. Let me look it up so I don’t screw up the spelling. Here it is.

Angst.

Of course, it’s not surprising at all that so many of us feel it. We have who we believe to be a socialistic fox in our chicken coup of state. Taking us down ruination highway.

Well, I want to try to relieve a little bit of your angst level.

Here’s why I believe, when the upcoming elections start rolling around, starting in 2010, as Jennifer implies in her article, a lot of previous Obama voters will be throwing both the Democratic Party along with the brown eyed handsome man under the election day bus.

Obama and his handlers have misjudged a certain group of voters. In the next Presidential election, I predict they’re going to knock Obama on his butt.

Let me try to explain. If I were an African American voter in the last election, no way in hell I’d have voted for McCain, who lacked the way with words, had no message that appealed to me over Obama’s and was running against my pride. I’d be proud such a wonderful example for my kids was running for President, Barack Obama.

I know a slew of white kids in their 20′s with good jobs, really good private enterprise jobs who all voted for Barack, too. They thought he was the man for the job with a very coherent message. They were so very wrong.

Let’s face it, Barack had everything going for him.

But we fast forward to the present and project to 2010 and 2012 and Barack’s in big trouble.

What sinks him, in my opinion, are people who voted for him who love something more than they loved Barack.

They love their country. They’re former military people. Former and present cops. There small business people. They own houses. Have cars. Make payments. Raise families. And vote. And guess what?

They’re black. The day I’ll be proudest than ever before to be an American is the day the news people in utter amazement announce that Americans of African descent deserted Obama in droves.

If you think being black inoculates you against feelings of deep down pride for the red white and blue, from sea to shining sea, you’re dead wrong.

I know I’m leaving myself wide open for somebody to call me naive the way I called Jennifer, of whom I’m a big fan, naive.

But love of country, whether you’re black or white, is a strong emotion. And Barack’s set himself up for a fall because he’s such a weak President. Everything he tries horribly fails.

And with tipping points like Gatesgate and Panthergate, friends, a lot of honorable, America loving people are going to be wanting to show Barack the door.

You want to know how I feel? Stupid, that’s how I feel. Stupid and mad. I was taken by President Obama. I bought into the hope and change hoopla. I bought that he was someone new and fresh, a man of honor. Now I know better. I have buyers remorse. I should have remembered that when something sounds too good to be true…it isn’t. You can fool me once, but not twice. I will not vote again for Obama. Even worse, I am bitterly dissapointed in my democratic party. I won’t vote ever republican, but if the democratic party doesn’t mend their ways, defending their people and stop all the wasteful spending, I will not vote on the next election.

I met a lot of non-Republicans at the Los Angeles Tea Parties this year and just because they were carrying anti-government signs and bothered to mingle with perceived right-wing kooks, is no reason to think they’re mad enough to vote against the party that is ruining our country. Pfft, why would they do that?

I mean, who wouldn’t want to keep repeating the following highlights of the current Democrat reign:
Trillions upon trillions of dollars in debt(and mounting), rising gas prices despite the fact that the “oil men” are out of the White House, a failed stimulus, the Frank-Dodd-Waters mortgage debacle, an economically disastrous cap-and-trade bill foist upon us by a bunch of self-appointed aristocrats who fly around in private jets, a President who is following the Cloward-Piven Stategy to the letter, and a First Lady who is costing us three times more than the last two First Ladies and wears $600 tennis shoes to soup kitchens during “the worst economy since the Great Depression.”

Why would anyone in his or her right mind be motivated to vote those people out?

The best thing about Obama is that the American public is getting to see a full-fledged Democrat government in action. And they are smelling a stink that’s a trillion times more than the Republicans ever stunk. Sorry, Moho, but only ideological left-wing fools will want to continue this insanity past 2010.

You want to now how I feel? Stupid, that’s how I feel. Stupid and mad. I was taken by President Bush. I bought into the whole “uniter not a divider” hoopla. I bought that he was someone new and fresh, a man of honor. Now I know better. I have buyers remorse. I should have remembered that when something sounds too good to be true…it IS. You can fool me once, but not twice. I am bitterly dissapointed in my republican party. I won’t vote ever democrat, but if the republican party doesn’t mend their ways, defending their people and stop all the wasteful bickering, I will not vote on the next election.

“Vaughn: Vivo is the one reason, I cannot get behind the Libertarian movement. Legal drugs?? look at the results of illegal drugs.

What makes you think (s)he’s a Libertarian?!? He’s a Libertarian as much as Bill Maher is one – not!”

That’s right Khiri, I’m an Independent and a ‘he’; if I was a ‘she’ the name would be viva, no biggie. As far as drugs, I don’t like them or use them. That’s why I have a clear mind.

79. Commuter:

“The majority of both moderates and liberals are actually independent voters. And they vote issues central to their lives, not matters of conservative or progressive political theory.”

This and the rest of your analysis is pretty accurate. You have some clear understanding and I like the way you think. You make sense and are logical. I couldn’t ask for more.

“There are statements that vivo for example, a liberal in my book, has made that I find informative and the possibility of integrating some aspects into how I view things exists.”

Thank you for recognizing that. I knew that some conservatives have brains. Some of my pungent remarks are aimed at the crazed ones, but I also try to contribute with some serious ideas. Not for partisanship but as part of the society in which we live.

Joseph (#118), the subject is Barack Obama Buyer’s Remorse–not Bush Derangement Syndrome. Stick with the subject or join the others in the kiddie pool.

Do you think you’re smart by taking Mary’s post (#113) & inserting Bush into them? You’re not. You’re predictable as rain. Most Leftists are: boring & predictable. Just full of cliches with nothing to say. It shows in your post.

There are enough posts on this thread to come to one
conclusion: America has more than its share of “Gimmes”
stumbling around out there. Obama lies to your face
repeatedly, yet “ambivalence” is your strongest negative
feeling? You in-the-tankers will need your tin cups
and street organs all the while Obama runs the show..
and long after he’s gone. In 5-10 years you’ll wake
up and realize your wallet’s gone and Acorns will
be helping you cross the street.

Impeach the Usurper and we get Joe.
But wait! There is more. We will get to see Emmanual and Axelrod do the perp walk. THAT would sell enough tickets to help the economy.
Then there is D.C. Bob. What a long strange trip it’s been!

118. Joseph wrote:
You want to now how I feel? Stupid, that’s how I feel. Stupid and mad. I was taken by President Bush. I bought into the whole “uniter not a divider”

Peter writes: Hey, Joseph, major typo in your post. For some reason Bush appeared, but we all know you obviously meant Obama, since Obama was the one proclaiming himself the “uniter, not divider.” The one apologizing for the USA around the world for being so “devisive.”

You might want to give your spell-checker a once-over just to make sure there is no programming glitch.

“You want to know how I feel? Stupid..and mad. I was taken by President Obama.”

Mary,

You sound sincere so I will take your words at that. I would add a few more, like “lied to” and “betrayed” to name a couple.

I got into a discussion with a person who tried to unload his frustration about Obama using the usual artifices you see from the trolls above: projection, stereotyping, and disingenuousness. He tried to paint the “tea-baggers” as haters, racists, and right-wing zealots principally because I expressed some anti-Obama sentiments to him. It was painful not to be able to communicate with him but I honestly told him (condensed and bereft of invective): I do not like Obama nor do I respect him. I think him to be an opportunistic politician and an incompetent chief executive. I do not believe he is capable of running this country. I also consider him to be corrupt as do I consider his appointees/administration to be so.

For the record, I also did not like Bill Clinton. However — and I concede this point ex post facto — he WAS capable of running the country. I did not agree with his policies or his views, but he was able to get the job done. Additionally, I believe that Hillary would have made a far better president than Obama (and that is quite a concession from me).

I started out the primary season with a blinding enmity of Hillary Clinton and scoffed at her when she made with the crocodile tears several weeks in. But as the campaign wore on, I began to see how vicious Obama and his crowd were and how they would stop at nothing to win their prize. The convention is Denver with his Nuremberg coronation was just plain scary; we were in a whole different reality and there was a real fecal storm headed our way.

Now that he is in office, he has admirably demonstrated that my faith in his inability has not been misplaced. He has and will turn the office of the presidency down until it is something akin to a men’s room one finds at a biker bar in Boron, California: foul stench, floor covered with vomit, and all of the porcelain thrones backed up.

Sadly, every generation apparently has to experience their own Jimmy Carter to relieve themselves of the nonsense spouted by Obama.

Gladly, the young and foolish who made up so much of Obama sychophantic supporters are experiencing the full-force effects of this disastrous experiment. And THEY WILL CONTINUE TO EXPERIENCE THE THE WORSE OF IT. Serves them right and perhaps a few of them will learn quickly. Deadbrains like BOBNC\NOW and THEN have wasted their years in a druggy haze and they are now only looking for anyone who will take things from people who work and give it to them in exchange for a vote. They are little better than prostitutes.

Their days of freeloading are going to take a serious hit as a backlash to voting for this disaster of a man. Now and Then, I suggest you put down the drugs and take a bath because YOU are going to be WORKING for a long time to pay for this disaster.

“Obama and his crew will live out their years outside the United States in the lap of luxury.”
Uh OK. Wanna bet he’ll do the seond term because the repubs have no one—noooo one who can match him?

“The brown eyed handsome man doesn’t care a whit about quality health care for Americans. This is just another part of his agenda to socialize America.”

Gee, Rach, I know that the people that installed single payor care in Canada, France and Britain weren’t all socialists were they? Some of them even thought that it might improve health care!

I mean I know there must be “good” in the plan to let foreign countries buy US pharmaceuticals at below cost but we here have to buy them at full cost….how is this good for us again? Oh yes..we subsidize the foreigners! What a great plan!

And gosh…US health care must be really good: that’s why the US congress has somehting better. Why do you want something lesser? Even Chuck Pelton (who has mercifully dissappeared) relies on the VA for all his jumpmaster bruises why shouldn’t you get what he has?

I know you say you got booted from some cheerleading squad at Stanford for doing research on elementary particles in upper division hsistory, but be honest: you went to some community college and got hounded from “Elementary Logic” for writing papers like you do here? Right?

Apparently our friend Blarty doesn’t read, listen to news, go outside, pay taxes, have a job, have children to worry about or a mortgage.

What’s life like under your parkbench Blarty? Does your local library have time limitations on using their computer? I might suggest you read one of those books once in a while while you’re in there enjoying the free air conditioning.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
- Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of U.S. (1809 – 1865)

You are welcome. I believe it is important to distinguish the difference between the progressive tools that pollute these threads almost continuously at this point, and people with differences of opinion.

Don’t mistake me, i would consider myself a moderate in my voting habits, but conservative in political philosophy. The moderation comes from the fact that I accept that there might be other solutions, and society evolves apace. The conservative core comes from both my appreciation and my understanding of the Constitution. From that I get my abhorrence of the progressive tendency to blur the distinctions the Constitution makes between the roles of the different branches of government, and who is responsible to who – the government to the will of the people, or the people to the will of the government. From the first comes governments only valid role – protection of the rights of the people. From the second comes the perversion of the government’s role – rights granted (and therefore amenable to rescinding) by the government to the people.

As far as I’m concerned, you are vulgar, anti-american, trash just as harpo is and for the same reason.

You, or anybody else calls Americans exercising their rights to express their dissatisfaction with government intrusion into their lives ‘teabaggers’ in my hearing and in my physical presence will get their clock cleaned – whatever that takes.

@98, Graham L. writes :”Please show me the graph, poll, or data that provides any evidence that shows that Obama voters didn’t understand his policy goals or didn’t read his books. ”

Well, I for one cannot show what books people DONT read because that would be trying to prove a negative which is an impossibility. But one look at these videos does show that Obama voters didnt understand his policy goals:

You might want to give your spell-checker a once-over just to make sure there is no programming glitch.

~~~
Oh, Joe – piece of advice from a writer’s group I frequent – spell check is not your friend. If you use the wrong word because your vocabularly is too insufficient to know the correct one – spell check won’t stop you from embarassing yourself.

How refreshing it is to see so many Americans waking up to the reality of the dangerous man their hysterical, emotional, gullibility allowed to be elected. Virtually nothing is known about this man he has no verifiable paper trail starting with his Birth . For example his defenders ignore the fact that he MUST have used some Birth Certificate BEFORE the issue of the very dodgy COLB in 2007 to get his Passport, his Drivers License and to register at College and the Bar so where is THIS document and is that why all these records are hidden too.

To summarize OBAMBI used a Birth Certification document to obtain Passports/Driving Licenses/College Admissions/Medical Benefits/Entry to the Bar etc all of which he did BEFORE the issue of the COLB in 2007.
So what document DID he use then and where is it now and and WHY is it not available? Is this the real reason why all his academic records etc. are SEALED because information from this document would be there?

“Don’t mistake me, i would consider myself a moderate in my voting habits, but conservative in political philosophy.”

My confusion might come from the fact that your mind and mine are complex and not constricted by rigid beliefs. I hope that I can learn something from you. Keep it up!

143. Barf-Alert, 149. Войска ПВО (Air Defense Troops?):

I laughed. Your brains are exploding with the notion that some people can actually talk, agree, disagree without getting all paranoid and insulting.

151. Pragmatist:

Breaking news!

The British Secret Service has determined that President Obama’s birth certificate was originated in another galaxy. Astronomers and scientists have detected a massive movement in space resembling thousands of flying objects approaching the Earth. Calculations assume that they will arrive on December 25th 2009. They tried to share this news with the media, but nobody would believe them. They know that a large segment of the American public will be more understanding.

Sorry, Moho, but only ideological left-wing fools will want to continue this insanity past 2010.

Yes, poodle, because it was all going so well for the last eight years. So well, that the Republican party bled about half its members. Your strategy is based on a collective amnesia so that no one will remember just how truly horrible things were under Republican rule. Sorry, the only people with such short memories are the remaining Republicans who make up less than a third of the voting population and are so inured to logic they can hardly hold a conversation without screaming.

8. Conservative1:
Exactly! In fact his was the most transparent of campaigns. We all knew what he was back in the early days of the primaries.

11. Hello:
I fear you are right, especially about the Republicans not having a clear leader.

16. Peter the Bubblehead:
I told members of my family who he was and they ignored me. The speech in Berlin told me all I needed to know. Now, a few of my family are suffering from serious buyers remorse.

Yes, poodle, because it was all going so well for the last eight years.

If you haven’t seen the economic stats comparing the day prior to the Dems takeover in Congress in 2006 to the economic stats now, you should look them over. All of the damage to the market, economic growth, unemployment, etc., happened after the Dems took over in 2006. We can debate the actual substance of those numbers, but the numbers themselves are clear. The first 6 years of Bush’s term, notwithstanding the early recession, were good economic times.

Republicans who make up less than a third of the voting population and are so inured to logic they can hardly hold a conversation without screaming.

I only remember one Presidential candidate telling his followers to “get in their faces”, meaning his opponent’s followers’ faces, and it wasn’t McCain.

140. Commuter: “As far as I’m concerned, you are vulgar, anti-american, trash just as harpo is and for the same reason.

You, or anybody else calls Americans exercising their rights to express their dissatisfaction with government intrusion into their lives ‘teabaggers’ in my hearing and in my physical presence will get their clock cleaned – whatever that takes.”

Please. The whole teabagger party movement was a FOX News choreographed charade. As soon as FOX stopped promoting the “rallies”, they fell apart, exposing the lie that these parties were “grassroots”. Note to teabaggers: when your movement only exists because of corporate sponsorship and promotion, your movement is not grassroots.

And these stupid ignorant town hall screamers are the same bunch of bananas – angry delusional nutcases being bussed in by right wing groups to disrupt peaceful discourse between elected leaders and their constitutents.

The townhall meeting is one of the bedrocks of American democracy – the opportunity for voters to speak directly and candidly with the men and women they elected to serve them – and whacko Republican idiots are hijacking the process by intimidating voters and officials like a bunch of brownshirt thugs.

The only thing I am let down (but hardly surprised) by is the consistent shrillness, mendacity and wrongheadedness of the author. The semi-good news is that given the reality that the Republican party is very much in the grip of these sorts of wing nuts, we are going to have progressive government in this country for a very long time to come.

Please. The whole teabagger party movement was a FOX News choreographed charade. As soon as FOX stopped promoting the “rallies”, they fell apart, exposing the lie that these parties were “grassroots”. Note to teabaggers: when your movement only exists because of corporate sponsorship and promotion, your movement is not grassroots.

graham l.”The townhall meeting is one of the bedrocks of American democracy – the opportunity for voters to speak directly and candidly with the men and women they elected to serve them – and whacko Republican idiots are hijacking the process by intimidating voters and officials like a bunch of brownshirt thugs”

is that right genius? seen the polls for govenor in NJ? say bye bye, loser. when your current crew gets done, the american people will not soon forget their malfeasance. only people like you could be dumb enough to be massively bait-and-switched by a delusional narcissist and still be happy about it. or, you’re broke and looking for a handout from Dear Leader. Either way, you’re done, pal, bye bye….

Where did you get that bit about Libertarians thinking Obummer would reduce the size of government? That is complete nonsense. I am a Libertarian and I always knew Obummer was a lying big government socialist. Except that now I think he is more likely a communist.

These town hall disrupters remind me of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran. In Iran they will send bus loads of zeolots to counter certain protests against the government. Lots of shouting, yelling and no intelligent discourse.

LOOK BOTTOM LINE IS THAT IF YOU VOTED FOR OBAMA YOUR MAMA RAISED A STUPID CHILD. ANYONE WHO WOULD VOTE FOR A PERSON WHO HIMSELF COMES FROM A FAMILY OF WELFARE RECIPIENTS IS NOT BRIGHT. ITS PATHETIC THAT THE MOTHER OF ABORTION KATHY SEBELIUS IS GOING TO HEAD THE GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTHCARE. I MEAN THE DOCTOR OF DEATH TREATING US REALLY NOW. I THINK THAT THE YOUNG KIDS WHO VOTED FOR BARAC ARE LAME AND DEPENDENT ON THE FRUITS OF OTHERS. READ THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND REPENT. THOUGHT SHALL NOT KILL (ABORTION) OR STEAL (TAXES). ALSO, IF 10% IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOD THEN WHY ISN’T 10% GOOD ENOUGH FOR BARAC??

i am 62 which is old enough not to be short sighted and experienced enough not to be taken in repeatedly. and I have been fascinated with politics for over 40 years. I have been optimistic and discouraged. Outraged and placated. Voted for more republicans than democrats but depending on the the issue, some of each. I like Obama and what’s more I trust his motives. This current batch of republicans are for the most part motivated by the game not the general good. If they came up with a candidate truly interested in the country first I would welcome the chance to vote for them again but right now that base is mostly covered by democrats.

Mr. Obama has no significant accomplishments during his brief career in politics, other than campaigning for office and getting elected. Now that he is President he is clearly over his head and does not have a clue as how to run the Executive Branch. Like many executives who have risen beyond their capabilities, Mr. Obama has reverted to what he knows best: campaigning for office. Even my friends who voted for this idiot are angry at what they’ve got and are distancing themselves from the “Obamorans” who will support this nit-wit to the bitter end. A military coup d’etat is looking like an attractive alternative right now.

Democrats got their butts kicked in 1980, 1984 and 1988. Thanks to Ross Perot, they elected a president in 1992 and 1996 who sounded a whole lot like a Republican (campaigned on a tax cut, signed NAFTA, welfare reform, balanced budgets, signed the Defense of Marriage Act). They managed to lose an election that was in the bag in 2000 and got their butts kicked again in 2004. In 2008, the Republican nominee was ahead with seven weeks left. The economy melted down and the Democrats managed to pull 52% (their best showing in 44 years). Six months later, the President’s approval rating has dropped 13 points in his first six months (unprecedented in the last century) and it isn’t going anywhere good, because unemployment isn’t going below 8% anytime soon.

In the face of this, every other Democrat posting on this site confidently states that the GOP can no longer compete because: 1) candidates like Mitt Romney can’t stand on the same stage as an economic genius like our president; 2) the GOP is a southern regional party (makes you wonder why they nominated a guy from Arizona and he won over a dozen non southern states in 2008); 3) young people are more liberal (they are in every election); and 4) the Republicans are too inept/corrupt (unlike ethical giants like Rahm Emanuel and brilliant problem solvers like Nancy Pelosi). Keep on thinking that, it will make the butt kicking you are going to take in 2012 a genuine surprise.

I voted for Obama and I’m thoroughly disappointed. I’m gonna call him names or anything, that’s not cool. But I will say the guy who I thought I was voting for was the guy who will actually turn Washington around. Now I gotta wait 3 years before I get to see if we can find that guy again….

Thanks for knocking some sense into me. We need to get back to the good old days when we had a President who slept through clear warnings about 9/11, started a war based upon lies against a country that had nothing to do with it, grossly mismanaged said war, grossly mismanaged a terrible natural disaster, turned a working surplus into a huge deficit, systematically violated the Constitution, filled the Justice Department with political hacks and presided over the near-collapse of our economic system. I sure hope we can get back to that ASAP.

As a fiscal conservative, I did not vote for Obama; too many unknowns. But, I don’t want to repeat the radical Left’s vile tactics and smear the man every time he opens his mouth. I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. He started off quite well:

1. Built a Centrist, pragmatic cabinet and did try to instill some bipartisanship
2. Stayed clear of hot-button issues the radical Left wants…but which would have polarized the country (e.g. Card Check, Abortion on Demand, Gay Marriage, etc.)
3. Good job on foreign policy; I’m just fine with the “talk softly” policy and he’s a pragmatist on Iraq/Afghanistan. I’m concerned about Iran, but IMO no Pres on earth could fix that problem.
4. Took the political heat on the bailouts. They’re unpopular…but were absolutely necessary.

But…after two months he has gone BADLY off track on domestic policy:

1. The Stimulus Bill was a disaster. I agree with stimulus spending during a recession, but the Bill should have been crafted to get the stimulus out their immediately. Instead it was a Bill to pay off Dem interest groups and most of it doesn’t even get spent until 2010.
2. Cap & Trade. This is really Pelosi’s fault, but it displayed Obama’s inabililty to control his party and send the message to swing voters that the congress is nutty Left.
3. Health Care Reform: #1 and #2 damaged Obama/Pelosi’s credibility which made taking on radical health care reform almost impossible. They should have waiting until 2010 until the economy improved to tackle this one. But, they wanted a “victory” going into the 2010 elections; now they’ll get nothing, or next to nothing (a watered down bill that nobody will like).

If unemployment is above 10% in 2010, the Dems are going to get waxed in the congressional elections.

Obama has accomplished more positive things for this country in 8 months than Bush did in 8 years. I’m not the least bit disappointed, other than in the fact that the Internet allows people like the writer of this piece to push the idiotic musings rolling around in their brains.

I ain’t seen hide nor hair of an Obama supporter since April 09 even the OBAMA/BIDEN bumper stickers have been scraped off! I think they all went underground like weathermen when they realized what they actually voted for!
“HOPE AND CHANGE, HOPE AND CHANGE” >said in high shrill voicesaid in a whisper<
No ya shoulda voted Republican.

Agree with everything – yet I still cannot understand the use of the word “brilliant” to describe dba Obama’s campaing. End of last August, he was running even with McCain, and it was only crisis scare and the larger American cultural implosion that gave him more traction – and luck, sheer luck, remember that he and Hillary didn’t have to campaign in Michigan (then have their feet at fire for one or another thing said there).

Nothing before, and even less now from Obama – unless we take into account the fact that from now on we’ll find acceptable a roboton reading a teleprompter as inspiring figure.

I can only disagree with one part of your column. “And it’s going to be hard to fool all the rest of the voters a second time.” Bill Clinton sure managed to do it a second time! We can not let that happen again with Chairman O.

RE #40/Blarty: [...] Why is PJM ignoring the release of Sotero’s Kenyan Birth Certificate? ARE THEY PART OF THE CONSPIRACY TOO???? [...]

No, Blarty – PJM is preparing a piece on how Lynnette Fromme has already job offers from ACORN, DAILY KOS, HuffPo and MoveOnOrg. She was recommended in brilliant terms by dba Obama and Bill Ayres – watch for the news.

All I know, is that I am so totally angry at the lamestream media. They are total frauds for promoting this guy. I especially would like to thank NBC and PMSNBC for their honest and hard-working reporters. Wonder if they’re still tingling all over when they see The One. I refuse to buy any GE products

It didn’t take long to realize this is a popular hangout for seriously obtuse right-wing crankballs. At least mostly. You should consider the reasons Obama got elected are:

a. The guy has more ability in one of his earlobes than the rest of the GOP put together, at least right now

b. The McCain-Palin ticket was a joke … make that a scary joke

c. Somebody has to try and clean up the mess the Republicans made the last eight years

Regardless of how Obama fares going forward, conservatives need to take back the party from the DeMints, Coburns and other southern-fried primitives that have made it their own. Plus, Republicans need to come up with a few ideas besides just flooding the country with more guns. Otherwise, the movement will remain a deadend. But for a while, at least, that will be fine. Judging from most the posts on this page, it’s obvious the right badly needs a rest.

I am a reasonably centrist person who is so far quite happy with Obama. Right wingers such as the author would be whining about the president no matter what he did. Whining about anyone without an R after their name is, after all, her job. Obama, whether wingnuts like to admit it or not, inherited quite a mess. He is trying to fix it. I admire the man for having ideas instead of just speaking and thinking in stupid redneck bumper stickers. All you republicans, take a look at your poll numbers.

172. Pat J wrote:
These town hall disrupters remind me of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran. In Iran they will send bus loads of zeolots to counter certain protests against the government. Lots of shouting, yelling and no intelligent discourse.

Peter agrees: Yeah, that is usually how it goes when ACORN and the DNC bus in loads of hired thugs and illegals. (Such a case was recently revealed in NH by the Foster’s Daily Democrat newspaper.)

However, what we are seeing lately with the public confrontations of Dem congressmen is completely grass root and off the cuff. The people are just not going to take it anymore.

But I know how hard it is for the Libtards to believe that a grass-roots movement can occur without organization from a national party and a lot of money being spread around. After all, that’s exactly how the Dems have been doing it for years or they would get NO support at their own rallys.

There’s only a few ways to get democrats to leave america: 1. park a unicef food truck on the shores of africa. 2. have the post office accidentally mail their food stamps to n. korea. 3. have school teachers start preaching the virtures of living a government run life and encouraging all students to move to cuba. 4. hand out free condoms and legalize marijuana in sri lanka. 5. accidentally mail their welfare checks to mongolia. 6. hope for the big one. 7. tell them that global warming is going to melt them like the witch in the wizard of oz so they need to go jump in the ocean off a clift of course in order to save their hides. 8. tell them that the polar bears have setup a nanny state in the artic circle. 9. tell them that in n.korea that have legalized stealing from people.

177. salmontex: “Thanks for knocking some sense into me. We need to get back to the good old days when we had a President who slept through clear warnings about 9/11, started a war based upon lies against a country that had nothing to do with it, grossly mismanaged said war, grossly mismanaged a terrible natural disaster, turned a working surplus into a huge deficit, systematically violated the Constitution, filled the Justice Department with political hacks and presided over the near-collapse of our economic system. I sure hope we can get back to that ASAP.”

This column represents the worst kind of writing: ideological, full of unsupported assertions, designed to tear down for the benefit of angry blog readers. One day soon you’ll eat it, Jennifer. Obama has my full support.

To those who keep regurgitating the knocks on McCain, have your fun. In 2008 we were faced with the choice between a man who had once admitted he didn’t understand economics, and one who never admitted it.

McCain spent extra years in a N. Vietamese prison because he would not trade on his father’s name and give the enemy a propaganda victory. Irascible, difficult and cantankerous, and often dead wrong (c.f. McCain-Feingold campaign “reform”), there can be no doubt that this man is a patriot.

He would not have signed a “stimulus” or appropriations bill laden with earmarks for democrat interest groups. He would not have bowed to the Saudi king or recognized the rigged Iranian “election.” And he would not now be pushing attempted takeovers of the health care and energy interests under the name of “reform.”

Yes, McCain was far from a perfect candidate, but I was proud to vote for him in November, and am more certain now than then that he was the better choice.

To those who keep repeating that the Republicans have no leader. Of course they don’t, now. Did the democrats have a leader in 2001 or 2005? In two years from now I expect that there will be a crowded field of candidates vigorously competing to take Captain Zero’s place.

Rubin – as usual, is wrong. Democrats and the left are solid in Obama’s corner. According the recent polls, Obama has slipped, but Republicans are down in the sludge beneath the tank. And, of course, Rubin is wrong on specifics: Obama was never for gay marriage – ever. Never – and you can bet that Don’t ask will be abolished – but not yet – the man has some pressing issues. Your characterization of the stimulus, and glossing of the budget is mere political posturing, and as much as you want to separate Obama from the American jews who voted for him, many of us despise YOU far worse than Arafat and all of Hammas combined: Rubin you’re a liar – for all of Obama’s so-called betrayal, military and foreign aid to israel was increased under Obama – but of course, you sure don’t mind BILLIONS added to the budget for a state that continuously acts against American interests.
And you also lie about the military budget – Obama has INCREASED military spending by close to 6 percent over last year, totaling well over $500 billion (another budget buster you embrace) – At the end of the day, while Obama’s policies – twisted by right-wing maniacs like Rush and Beck (and Rubin) to scare the geezers and the flyover trash – have taken a temporary beating, Obama is still personally VERY popular with the younger voters and the voters of color – you know people of color, Rubin, they’re the folks you walk by quickly clutching your tightly locked purse. And those are the voters that WHIPPED YOU last time around.

The only chance I see for Obama to be a ‘Uniter ‘ is that perhaps most of us will finally start putting Country ahead of Party. Not a Republican or Democrat issue anymore, but patriotic Americans standing up to protect their way of life, their freedom and liberties.
You will always have some on the far left and far right who won’t get it — but it’s sounding to me more and more that ‘ we the people ‘ get it. Stop supporting and parroting the talking points of one party, look around you, at the changes and plans, is this what you want ? IF NOT, get involved, in any way you can. Quit argueing Rep. & Dem, fight for America and what she stands for, before it’s gone.
Obama does not care about you or me, he cares about power, about remaking this country as he sees fit, he lies , you know he is, but nobody calls him on it. He is the most blatantly dishonest president I’ve ever seen.

I’m seriously beginning to beleive that our country is now ungovernable. We may do better to split the union. I’d rather do that than be led further down the rat hole by this group of economic illiterates.

“Wanna bet he’ll do the seond term because the repubs have no one—noooo one who can match him?”

I have a two word answer for that little bit oh’ koolaid powered nonsense;

SARA PALIN!

Chris:

“Obama has accomplished more positive things for this country in 8 months than Bush did in 8 years. I’m not the least bit disappointed, other than in the fact that the Internet allows people like the writer of this piece to push the idiotic musings rolling around in their brains.”

EXCUSE ME? Unemployment from 4.5% to 9.8% ( a stretch, it is actually over 10, 12 if the numbers aren’t fudged) is not what normal people call positive. Stock Market gone from 12,000 to 9,000 isn’t exactly a positive either. Then there is the deficit going from about 2 trillion to about 10 trillion. That number will get worse as the economic meltdown continues and tax revenues collapse.

All I can figure is that you are not an American. That would explain why you see the destruction of America as a positive thing and also seem to think the 1st amendment is a bad idea.
I’m not sure what little mudhole country you are from, but if we haven’t bombed it yet, we need to.

@Warpublican, you have your facts wrong.
Try reading with comprehension, then you’ll understand that Obama is cutting DOD spending,
not actually increasing.
He was not in office very long before he ordered the DOD to reduce costs by 50 billion, I believe it was. He also told other agencies they had to reduce costs. Last I heard one dept. came up with a plan to print on both sides of paper, to save costs. And the admin. stated the other depts. have a 6 month extension to come up with ‘ savings’.

ps. Hubby is on the road all the time, so he talks to lots of people . And when someone says they don’t like Obama’s policies, he tells me people of color won’t defend Obama , wonder why ? They supported Clinton like crazy.

I just wonder why America needed to be that formal and phony in the last presidential elections. Why did America need to risk the presidency of this great nation? Only to do a huge PR work on an international level? Is it enough for America just to tell the world how democratically minded we are? Is it enough for the United States to persuade the world once again that we are capable of what the rest of the world is not? Did we have to boast to the rest of the world and to ourselves too that we are such a good and fair nation that we are electing African Americans as presidents. Why was this so important to us? Just to say that we have made giant steps forward towards fairness and democracy from slavery to black presidency? I thought we were better than that. What I have always adored about America and its political culture was that no man is above truth and justice in this country. So why cater to the tastes and opinions of the rest of the world with such a defference? Why not stick proudly to the oldest principles on which this nation was based and its political culture was nurtured. Let’s just keep this on mind. After all, there are so many more elections in store for us in the future!

I wonder what would have happened if McCain and Palin were elected and decided to just let the automobile industry fail…

~~~~

Chrysler and GM would have done what Ford did. Restructure, and regornganzie – and the UAW would have gotten the reality check they have needed for a long time. Ford is coming back leaner and will be more profitable for it, but many are refusing to patronzie GM (government motors) or Chrysler for selling out. The union “bosses” are living it up (have you SEEN their country clubs that are entirely union membership supported? but only for the union bosses, not the members.), and now their members are losing jobs. Giving the UAW control over the auto industry is worse than putting the fox in charge of security for the hen house. Obummer did that, and gave US the bill with nothing to be gained.

My obama worshiping nephew has refused to talk politics to me since the stimulus. Yeah, how’s that hope and change working?

are you kiddddding?
All of the DEMOCRATIC polls show BHO has really high poll numbers. Mickey mouse was polled like 120 times and he loved BHO so do all of the dead people and the ACORN voters that voted 78 times

If health care gets passed, I’m happy with Obama, simple as that. In addition, Sotomayor was a good pick. Hopefully, Pres. Obama will have more picks for the Supreme Court coming up.
Bailing out the auto industry was a necessity. The cash for clunkers was a good idea to get the gas guzzlers off the road (though it seems kinda morally suspect to give former SUV drivers $4,500 but at least they’re changing their ways). We’re slowly, perhaps very slowly, phasing out of Iraq so that’s good, from my perspective. If we don’t get out of Iraq before the next election, that might be a problem for Obama. On foreign policy issues, Obama often looks like Bush III, which from my perspective is not good, but perhaps others relished the Bush II years. If they are the majority, then a nation in constant wars will not be a problem for the Democrats.

The White House is now asking for folks to report ‘fishy’ emails and the like directly to an White House Email site!! Think that was tried in Germany up until 1945; and Russia until 1991. Can the Democrats just not comprehend what history tells them?? Where was the announcement that we were now under a dictatorship — or was that done by an executive order!!

If America is dragged back by reactionary forces (so-called progressives/leftists/communists/ and Blarty Blarcklefart useful idiot types) to some kind of medieval leftwing wetdream, the American people will rise up and punish the d-Rats just as they punished the GOP for fifty years after the Hoover (leftist Republican raising the top tax rate to 56%) debacle.

Dr. Mom, you lead a very sheltered life. If you don’t know any people who are disillusioned with this president, then you don’t know many people. The debt that this president laid on your grandchildren will cause them more pain than anything any republican could have done. If the health care fiasco and cap and tax are bulldozed through congress, there will be no more USA for your grandchildren. You are extremely naive.

Honestly?!? I have no sympathy for Obama voters who feel they were misled. Yes, he wasn’t honest and did lie during his campaign, however evidence about the “real” Obama agenda and who he really is as a person was available if voters did any kind of research outside of the mainstream media. I tried many times to convince people about the hazards of voting for Obama, but his supporters would never listen and would counter that I was a racist because I didn’t support him and how awful Bush is…funny, Bush wasn’t running for office?? The country is in very bad shape now and who knows how much damage this sociopath and pathological liar will do to our country while in the White House. I only hope that our country will be able to repair all the damage he will leave behind.

I’ve read that 81% of American Jews voted for Obama – one of the most astonishing statistics I’ve ever read. Where in the world do these people get their political news? Did any of them actually believe that Obama would be a friend of Israel?

You really just have to shake your head in amazement. It’s like, sure, we’ll cover 47 million more people with health insurance at LESS cost.

I guess the voting public will believe anything.
Astonishing and quite depressing.

The illusion that is Obama and liberal Democrats has been carefully crafted and supported by many, many, tv and newspaper organizations over many decades.

If it is the truth about our government that we want as Americans, we will have to get it ourselves. We will have to read the 1000 page bills, even if our Representatives in Congress will not. We will have to elect people who want to serve for the common good more than for their own good. Good government Republicans and Democrats… 435 Representatives are up for election on Tues, November 2, 2010 along with over 30 Senators.

The purse strings of the entire Federal Government are held by the House… i.e. those 435 people. We can completely change our government by electing good government people to the House of Representatives and to the Senate on Tues, Nov 2, 2010.

OK, I voted for the guy. Actually, I voted against McCain. And I truly wished for a reconciliation for this country (yes, stupid on my part). Am I surprised at how liberal he is now? Somewhat. Would we be better off under McCain – I’m not sure – he’s a RINO and as narcissistic (sp?) as Obama ever dreamed of.

Is it shocking that those on a conservative website are upset by Obama’s policies and actions?

People who didnt vote for him the first time are probably not going to vote for him again. SHOCKER!

Couple quick points:

2012 (and 2010) is a long way off. It takes more than 5 months (hell, more than just a year imho) to correct the disaster that was the Bush Years. Actually Bush Years wasnt the start of the problem, this disaster has been boiling up since the REAGAN years. all the problems of the Bush Era were simply seeds planted during the Reagan Era come full circle.

Im pretty sure that the economy will be visibly better (it already IS showing signs of recovery, despite continued poor unemployment numbers) by summer 2010. Just in time for mid terms and Democrats will be able to say LOOK! SEE! and guess what? All this minor squabbling in 2009 will be gone and forgotten.

Conservatives have been wrong about Obama at every single step of the way. “He cant beat hillary”
“He wont win a national election”
“He cant get this stimulus through!”
“McCain will woop him in the debates!”

and my personal favorite from sites like this before fall of 09:
“The economy is fine! Nothing to see hear folks!”

“Im pretty sure that the economy will be visibly better (it already IS showing signs of recovery, despite continued poor unemployment numbers) by summer 2010.”

HJFudge #225, it hasn’t even hit bottom yet. Take the time and research Depressions. You will see that when you try to ‘cure’ a depression with government stimulus plans, a pattern develops. You get a leveling off, followed by a decline. Each phase is lower then the one before it.
That is because government funded programs DO NOT create wealth. No ‘Owners Equity’ aka Profit. You CANNOT sustain an economy without profit.
To keep it simple, your employer pays you because you are making him a profit. Stop making him a profit and he will stop paying you. If the government stops him from making a profit, he will also stop paying you. When taxes get high enough to stop your employer from making a profit, he will stop paying you. Incentive programs are based on taxes. After the government has destroyed the tax base, they have to start printing money to pay for the jobs programs. That causes inflation, so even if you had a job, you couldn’t afford anything.
This cycle is nothing new. There is 150 years of economic history involved. Do some research. Google hyper-inflation.

The only proven cure for a depression/inflation loop is a War. War sucks, we need to try something else this time.

I just can’t understand how people voted, first for Clinton, and then for Obama who was clearly even worse. Did the votes even matter? I tend to doubt it due to the liberal media’s manipulations during the debates. The media helped Gore’s attempt to steal the 2000 election too. Hanging chads, dimples? Pathetic!

The fix was in from day one after Obama gave that speech in 2004. Why is it that dems only care about how someone smiles and talks, but don’t even listen to what he actually says? I guess they’re very, very shallow.

It was obvious to me that Clinton was a huge liar the very first time I heard him on the radio during his campaign. I knew right then he was lying. Are dems so blind they couldn’t see it? NO, they just wanted to win no matter what. Now they’ve blindly voted for the ultimate deceiver who is hard at work destroying everything America has stood for, for over 233 years. Some change we got. Look at how this nation has gone down in such a short time since the dems took over congress in late 2006 and even faster since Obama.

Obama received about 53% of the vote last November and currently his polls show that he has “dropped” to about 54% approval. I would think based on those numbers that relatively few people who voted for him are unhappy with their votes.

When he ran he said he would reduce our military effort in Iraq and increase them in Afghanistan, he would work to reduce oil consumption and he would dramatically reform health care. As of today, he has already completed most of that and we are now awaiting the Health Care bills to finish off this list. If you voted for him how could you possibly think he was becoming more radical than he claimed when he ran? The reality is that the people knew he was more liberal than Bush. That’s why they voted for him. Now they see he is indeed more liberal than Bush and a majority of the people are elated by that. Unless he shoots someone in the head like Cheney did he can’t possibly be less popular than the previous administration let alone the Republicans in Congress.

Who is this man called President of the United States of America? Most sixth-grade children can produce a more accurately defined time-line of their lives than we have seen from him.

There are less than a dozen photographs of this man that we are supposed to blindly accept as a photo-documentation of his life. I have more pictures of my dogs (one day at the beach) than he has of his first 40 years on this planet.

But there is that all-important “picture,” the one of the ‘certification of live birth’, which is not to be confused with a ‘Certificate of Live Birth’, which only serves to cast further doubt as to who he is and from where he hailed.

I am watching my beloved country willingly fall into the hands of tyrants and despots. I never thought I would live to witness the fall of our great nation, yet here I am. And I am not paranoid. I am not a conspiracy theorist, and I am not an extremist. I am however not stupid, blind, ignorant, or uneducated.

When the President of the United States of America puts out a call (on the White House website) for American Citizens to report other American Citizens to the government (special email account provided) if they are overheard criticizing or otherwise disagreeing with his health care plan, even in ‘casual conversation conversation’, it becomes overwhelmingly apparent that we area nation on the threshold of a state-controlled dictatorship.

There should be no surprise about Obama, his books, Wright, Ayers, Jackson, Farrakan, Black Liberation Theology, Michelle O (her views), Soros, Hamas Youth, Muslim faith-denial, Soros, Kalid MOnsor, Communist friends, and statements about Gun Control, and DISARMING AMERICA. ETC.
Why is there now any questions about his plans.
Many signs where there, and especially SOME HATEFUL ANTI-JEWS, USA AND WHITE associates.
African Americans more than many other group in my opinion is still in shock, and is in very dangerous positions. Many still support him, and believes that he is MESSIAH.
I know of many who have experienced a severe blow, loss of jobs, houses, business, and white friends and others because of their support for Obama. Many regret their choice was not for Hillary Clinton, but is fearful to speak out, They suffer in silence as they always do, and make do the best way they can. VERY SAD.

Generic congressional vote has Dems less than 1% ahead and the hard votes are yet to be cast. Looks like a republican take over of the House but senate no. Queen Pelosi is ordering her $65 executive jet. The real price is less. Nation going to hell as Russian subs have returned and are 200 miles off the Florida coast. Russians not afraid of Barry Hussein Sortero knowing he is a softie unlike PM Putin.

That’s what useful idiots are good for. Fool them into following you then care a less about the promises made to useful idiots that got you there. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, call it what you like but the sheeple followed the wolf and there are still three and a half more years of this to go.
Like the old BTO song goes; “You aint seen nothing yet”

You forgot to mention the huge number of dope smokers who were promised legalisation by Obama.

This has sobered up quite a few people, just like in the UK, when Labour ‘reclassified’ Cannabis (well, they changed the letter from B to C and increased C penalties to match the old B), now they moved Cannabis up to B. Dope smokers usually are leftie-types and quite a few were cured of their Labour addiction after they realised that they had gotted stiffed by Tony and Friends.

If you’re an Obama voter and you’re let down by what you see, you didn’t do your homework ahead of time. Elect a socialist with a history of radical leftist beliefs and better not be surprised when you end up with a set of socialist/radical leftist legislative packages.

Seriously, if you voted for Obama and you’re shocked– shocked!– by what’s happening, just don’t vote next time. You clearly don’t have a grasp of how important voting is and how crucial it is to educate yourself on the candidates BEFORE you wander aimlessly into the ballot box and start blindly punching holes.

It’s true that Obama has been in office a short time and, normally, reasonable people would not pass judgement so soon…except for three things.
1. Obama is endeavoring to institute monumental changes that will reach well beyond his term(s) in office, and probably beyond the current generation.
2. At the moment, the Congress is controlled by the incumbent’s party, and the not-so-moderate wing of that party. If the GOP controlled Congress there would probably be as much pork but it would have a leavening effect on Obama’s ambitions.
3. In matters of life or death, like foreign affairs, his willingness to criticize America and kowtow to assorted dictators advertises a reluctance to defend the U.S. vigorously.

The one thing the left leaning commenters seem to all have in common is thier total lack of an understanding of basic economics. Something they share with our president.
Not that bush was any great prize in that area, but the current administartion has made it so much worse.

And for those of you on the left who sneer at the tea party phenomenon, watch it very closely. Not what they say, but who is saying it. It is a truly bipartisan movement and is has the very real chance of changing the way this country is run. You dismiss it at your own risk.

THIS IS FOR EVERYONE THAT THINKS OBAMA IS GOING TO BE RE ELECTED NEXT TIME. WHEN OBAMA SIGNS THE UN TREATY IN COPENHAGEN IN DECEMBER EVERYONE WILL KNOW WHAT AND WHOM HE REALLY IS. HE WILL BETRAY ALL OF US CITIZENS. IF HE SIGNS THE TREATY RELATING TO GLOBAL CLIMATE, WE WILL NO LONGER HAVE A CONSTITUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!

I, along with practically the entire world sought to see this man in power because of what direction our country has taken. Yet, we all feel that we are still in the same boat as we were under the Bush Administration… If we begin to analyze, nothing has really changed… There is no serious push for a real green economy. We haven’t brought our troops back home, and we are now sending more to Afghanistan. He tried to pass health reform, and from what it looks like, people like myself (Crohns Disease Patient) we will still be discriminated against because of our preexisting condition (s). The Israeli Government laughed in his face when he tried to stop the settlement building (major stepping stone in 2 state solution) although we are still providing billions upon billions to that country, while politicians are screaming mad about any money that we decide to spend here at home & our country bankrupts from the inside out… The American People are beginning to feel as if there is no point in even voting anymore. What is the point? Let’s be honest with ourselves… I doubt that votes have even mattered in the past 10 years… There is no difference between this president & the last president. I guess color really doesn’t matter… It’s obvious that this is exactly what they want. Democrats vs Republicans, and we idiots eat it up! We argue all the different reasons why one is better than the other, but in reality, we are still in the same filthy boat as we were under the last administration… One is no different than the other. To say that there is a difference is a hoax… They enjoy it when the public enters into these arguments because it just leads us further & further away from the truth… Both parties are puppets controlled by the same ventriloquist! So I ask again, what is the point of even voting… It’s no wonder Ron Paul wasn’t chosen to run…

I am so sick and tired of the Left whining about Obama’s broken promises. The truth is they expected (are still are expecting) too much of him too fast. I adamantly support Obama and always will. He is the best thing that has happened to this country. But I did not expect him to change everything all at once and right away. That is impossible for anyone to do considering the push-back he faced (and still is facing) from the Right. Obama has done the very best he can do in the time he’s been in office so far. I believe in his vision, but change takes a lot of time. He’s moving the country in the right direction and with loyal support from the Left, he will continue to make progress in meeting the goals he promised he’d make. Give him time and space to turn the status quo around–it’s like turning the Titanic around, it takes time and consistent work. Even if we Left do not get all of what we want from current legislation, it is a step in the right direction, a base level to be added onto in the future. Do not give up on Obama, his vision and his administration. Obama is a pragmatic politician and change-maker–I knew that going into his election and have not been disappointed. Lefties need to realize and accept this in order see their goals accomplished sooner or later. What the Left needs to also do is become much more vocal about supporting Obama and the successes he has accomplished. The Left needs a much higher media profile in order to counter the 24/7 messages of the Right. The Left has a great responsibility to maintain it’s power and influence. I still believe. Yes we can!!!